Long Shadows
by Leah Naberrie
Summary: It's one year after Jo's and Alaric's wedding. After a period of relative peace, Mystic Falls suddenly acquires a heretic problem. Bonnie, semi-retired town protector, travels to Portland to petition for help from the Gemini coven and its leader, Kai Parker. Season 7 AU. (Bonkai)
1. 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

 _June 2013_

 _Mystic Falls_

The night of Jo's wedding, Bonnie woke up to smoke and fire and screams.

And black magic.

It was thick in the air, thick enough to choke on. And it fed greedily on the fear and panic that surrounded her.

For a few seconds, she just lay on the floor, tired, so tired. Through the ground, she could still hear the screaming, the sounds of running feet, of distant explosions.

This was happening. This was really happening.

She had raced against time to get here and warn them. Yet despite all their plans, despite all their precautions, despite all her prayers and sacrifices… she was too late.

She was tired. Maybe she should just stay down, wait for it to be over.

Wait for them to come and kill her.

Then a familiar face flew into her vision and all thoughts of rolling over and dying fled from her.

"Kai!" she screamed, panicked, and her hand flew out instinctively.

He caught the _motus_ with reflexes that would have impressed her from anyone else and sent it harmlessly into the air. Before she could incant again, his hands were wrapped around her shoulders, dragging her to her feet and immobilizing her magic. She knew that it only took the slightest pressure and her magic would be ripped out of her painfully.

You only got one chance against Kai Parker and she had used up hers.

"What did you do?" she shouted into his face.

A trickle of blood ran from his temple to his chin, and his formerly impeccable suit was stained with more blood and soot. His grey eyes narrowed at her, looking as furious as she felt.

"What did _I_ do?" he shouted back. "Do you think I did this?"

Before she could respond, there was a whistling sound beside them. He whispered something and they slid three meters across the floor. A second later, the grand piano landed on the space they had been standing in.

Bonnie jumped and his grip on her tightened, painfully.

"Let me go…"

"KAI!"

Both turned to see Joshua Parker rushing towards them, his suit and beard covered with soot, magic pouring out of his hands.

"We need you! They're trying to breach the Southern Portal! If one of the anti-cloaking barriers come down…"

Bonnie gaped at him, then gaped even harder at Kai when he said, "OK" and while she was still trying to understand what the Hell was going on, Kai was shoving her at his father.

"Get her out." He said to the older man.

"I don't have time to-"

Kai grabbed his father's sleeve. "I need her to not be here."

Joshua frowned, about to speak, then must have seen something in Kai's face that silenced him. "I will."

Kai gave her one last look, his eyes full of things she couldn't begin to decipher, then he was gone.

Joshua Parker's hand was wrapped around her elbow and she was being dragged along beside him as he cut a path through the chaos of twisted furniture – and broken bones. Both littered the once-beautiful wedding hall. She could make out figures in the crowd: witches and warlocks in their once-beautiful wedding clothes, hands outstretched and chanting, their magic curling through the air like white smoke. A flash of blonde curls caught her gaze and she stared, barely recognizing Liv Tyler in a black dress, twirling like a ballerina as sparks of power poured out from her eyes and finger-tips. Around her a werewolf prowled, its teeth bared and stained with blood.

Then in the far distance, towards the south, red hooded silhouettes with black auras pouring from their beings.

"There's a portal on the Eastern side. We're sending the younger children and the mundanes through that one. Come on," he shouted at Bonnie who had dug her heels half-way across the floor.

"Not until someone tells me what is going on!" she shouted, standing her ground.

"I don't have time-"

"Tell me!"

There was a small explosion to their right. Joshua raised his hand in time to deflect the debris from them.

The older warlock glared at her. "The heretics attacked."

 _Too late… Too late…_ The phrase echoed in Bonnie's head.

"Elena?" _Caroline… Damon… Stefan…?_

"The doppelganger? She and the vampires left us to deal with this on our own."

And left her behind, Bonnie thought then mentally shook it away. They hadn't even realized she was here. She had got here seconds after all hell broke loose.

"What about Jo? Is she-"

"Safe. Kai was right beside her. Made a path for her and Alaric to get away."

Instinctively, her head turned, searching for him in the melee. She couldn't see him, but she could feel his magic, bursts of him sending shockwaves through the hall, under her skin.

Had she been wrong?

Joshua was still speaking. "The coven is taking heavy losses and I need to get you out of here. _Come on_ , girl. I have to get back to the fight!"

Bonnie, turned back to him and shook her head. "I can fight."

"I know you have magic, but leave this for the witches trained in combat."

Bonnie would have laughed if she wasn't in a life and death situation. "I have seen combat. And I am a Bennett."

Joshua Parker turned at her, his face registering shock. "What?"

Above them, there was a creaking sound. They moved just in time to dodge the chandelier that fell with a shatter of glass and wires on the floor. Joshua raised his hand but Bonnie was faster.

The shards of glass stayed up, suspended in mid-air. Then they swirled into a cluster in the shape of an arrow and went spinning towards the south side of the hall.

A high-pitched shriek filled the air. Bonnie waved her hand and then it stopped.

She looked at Joshua Parker's frozen face. "I'm Bonnie Bennett," she repeated. "I'm Sheila's grand-daughter. I can help you."

"My son asked me to get you to safety," Joshua said uncertainly.

Bonnie twisted out of his grip. "I'm not a Gemini. I don't take orders from you or your son."

The old man's lips twitched. Then he nodded. "Try to get to the stage. That's the best vantage." His lips twitched again. "Stay away from the south side. The coven leader is probably there."

Then he left her, his arm already rising up to shoot a spell from his index finger.

Bonnie stared up at stage. She could make out two young witches, standing back to back, working magic and shooting it up at the sky. A red-robed figure was bearing down on them, mouth snarling with curses.

She started running.

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _Portland, Oregon_

The landing rocked her awake. She jolted forward, and almost slipped off her seat during the forward throw. She scrambled back into place.

Damon watched throughout; the only thing on his face that was not actually laughing was his mouth. Bonnie shot him a dirty look. "Thanks a lot, jerk."

"You're welcome," he crowed.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We have reached Portland Airport. Please stay in your seats until the plane has come to a complete stop, the engines switched off and the Seatbelt Sign has turned off."

"Had a nice nap?" Damon asked, his eyes still dancing with laughter.

Bonnie scowled. "Let's just get this over with."

Alaric was waiting for them at the airport. He and Damon exchanged bro-hugs and, to Bonnie's surprise, Alaric bypassed her outstretched hand and lifted her from the ground in a huge bear-hug.

"Hey!" she said, laughing. Alaric Saltzman had gone from being her favourite professor in high school to someone whose death she mourned to someone who she barely spoke to. Even though it had been a year since they last saw each other, she hadn't expected this kind of welcome.

"It's so great to see you, guys," Alaric said, his face wreathed with smiles as they walked to his car. "Jo will be over the moon."

"You're just saying that because you need someone to take over diaper duty," Damon drawled, his tone not quite disguising the broad smile on his face.

"That, too!" Alaric said with a laugh.

He looked great, Bonnie noted, half-enviously. A year out of Mystic Falls, with his brand-new family, a comfortable job at the local high school, and in the heart of one of the most powerful covens in the world –

 _Who considered his children their heirs_

– had done wonders for the gloomy, half-broken man he used to be.

Of course, none of that would have even been possible if he hadn't come back to life in the first place.

Bonnie pushed back the thought. She had long moved past that bitterness.

The car drove through the warm streets of Portland. Bonnie, riding in the back, kept turning her head to take in the sights and sounds. The last time she was here was both at once a year and nineteen years ago. Then the streets were empty and she had been driving fast enough to kill herself. She hadn't had time to stop and smell the roses.

Literally. The city was littered with them.

Back in Mystic Falls, the streets were littered with vervain.

"This is not a social call, drinking bud," Damon said bluntly somewhere after an hour of catching up as they turned into a street.

Alaric shrugged. "Whatever. I'm just glad to have you guys here."

She and Damon shared a loaded glance through his side mirror.

They hoped Alaric would still think so when he heard what they had to say.

"Talking about drinking," Alaric said now. "Remember what I told you?"

Damon heaved a long-suffering sigh. "No blood. No fangs. No fun. Relax, Ric. I'll be on my best behaviour."

"You're not exactly going to have a choice," Alaric said sheepishly. "Coven put in a few spells in the house."

"Let me guess: a few _vampire_ -proofing spells?"

Alaric shrugged again. "The girls are their heirs. I'm just the baby-daddy."

"The word you're looking for is sperm donor." Damon said snidely and looked like he was ready to say more about this but at that moment, Alaric took the car off the road and into a gated estate straight from a suburbia catalogue.

He drove past the fence, up his driveway and parked the car.

Then he waited the few seconds it took Damon to stop laughing.

More like few minutes.

Five minutes later, Damon was still laughing as they pulled their luggage behind them: Damon carrying his knapsack, Bonnie swinging her satchel and Alaric struggling with the three pieces of luggage that she had managed to squeeze a week's worth of essentials into.

"A white picket fence? Really? A white picket fence?" Damon asked when he finally caught his breath. Then he burst into laughter again.

"Oh shut up," Alaric said finally, the walk between the car and his door apparently too much for him and his burden and he stopped halfway. "Come here and give me some help."

"Why should I help? That's _Bonnie's_ stuff not mine."

"Because you pretend to be a gentleman?" she asked, smoothly.

"What happened to equal rights?" he retorted.

"What the heck is equal about vampire strength?"

Their bickering was – thankfully – cut short by the front door opening and the spectacle of Liv Parker standing before them, a crying baby on her hip.

"Oh thank god!" she said by way of greeting and dropped the baby in Bonnie's arms.

"W-what?" Bonnie said in horror, just barely holding onto cloth and blanket and staring into a face that had apparently, been shocked into silence at the sight of her.

Liv was already walking across the lawn. "I need to get out of this house. You said an hour, Alaric!" she said, as she passed him.

"There was traffic. Where's Jo?" he yelled, after her back.

"Sleeping. Don't you wake her!" Liv yelled back, not turning her head.

The baby, having studied Bonnie's face and come to its own conclusions, opened its mouth into a high-pitched wail.

"Welcome to my home!" Alaric said cheerfully, as he followed Damon with the last of Bonnie's boxes to the front door.

* * *

Jo didn't wake up until almost three hours later and when she did, she scooped up the wailing baby with one hand, and it shushed the moment it disappeared into her blouse. Everyone was too relieved to be embarrassed – although Damon started opening his mouth and closed it without comment under Bonnie's and Alaric's combined icy glares.

"I love your hair," Jo raved, eyeing Bonnie's almost waist length braid with approval as she led her upstairs, to the nursery. "You look amazing. Very continental," she added with a wink, clearly referring to Bonnie's summer of Europe, the previous year. She had left a few weeks before the Saltzmans themselves had moved out of Virginia for good.

" _You_ look incredible," Bonnie countered honestly. She couldn't stop sneaking glances at the older woman as they bent over the side of the double crib to coo at the sleeping baby, also a girl. Apparently, a year away from Mystic Falls translated to ten years away from one's age. The doctor looked closer to Bonnie's age than her own, black hair radiant, her skin glowing and her whole demeanour brighter and happier than Bonnie had ever seen. Not even on Jo's wedding day.

Bonnie swallowed, dark emotions lurking somewhere near, never far from her heart, whenever the memory of that day entered in her thoughts.

The two women – and a half, counting the baby in Jo's arms – left the nursery and made themselves comfortable in Jo's bedroom while Alaric and Damon made themselves useful cooking lunch.

"Sorry, it's all hands on deck here," Jo said with a laugh as she kicked up her feet on the small stool while Bonnie – in a fit of spontaneity she was fast regretting – tried to make sense of the clutter of baby clothes that were thrown on the bed.

"No matching sets?" she asked, holding up one green short-sleeved onesie and a yellow sleeveless one.

Jo shuddered. "I've had enough of matching twin sets to last a lifetime. Kai and I wore colour-coded clothes until we were twelve and Luke and Liv had to do the same. We even still got matching sweaters for the holidays." She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to give my girls some individuality or die trying."

Bonnie was silent, concentrating hard on folding the clothes correctly.

Jo sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to just throw him at your face. I know you guys –"

Bonnie gave her a sharp look. "You know we what?"

Jo bit her lip and fell silent.

"What?" Bonnie asked, trying and failing to keep the aggression from her voice.

"I know you guys have things to work out," Jo said finally.

Bonnie felt her heart stutter. "What did he tell you?"

Jo rolled her eyes. "Bonnie, he didn't have to. Look, I'm not going to have this conversation with you if you don't want to. But… you didn't come here just to coo over my babies. You're going to see Kai soon and you'd better know what you want from him when you do."

"We need his help with the situation at Mystic Falls," Bonnie said at once. "The heretics that returned. That's all I'm here for."

Jo shrugged.

That little gesture infuriated Bonnie and she wasn't able to censor her next words. "Since when did you two get so close anyway? Why are _you_ so OK with him?"

Jo stared at her. "He's my brother, my twin."

"Who murdered half of your siblings."

Jo's face fell and Bonnie felt like kicking herself. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't."

"No, you- you have a right to hear this." The doctor was silent for a moment, and tapped the baby at her breast. It looked like if she had fallen asleep, and Jo was trying to get her to keep feeding. "After the merge with Luke, Kai changed. That's what happens after a Gemini twin merge ceremony. One twin physically lives on but within that body, the souls of both twins combine to form an entirely new person. It's not just a transference of power – it's a _mergence._ The Kai that is alive now … he's more like the brother I remember growing up with, the brother that I loved than the monster that destroyed our family. I can't hate him anymore than I can hate Luke who died saving my life."

Bonnie was shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I've heard this before and I don't… I don't accept it."

"It's not up to you to accept or not," Jo said quietly. "It's the truth. I've made my peace with it, with Kai. So has Liv, my father, the rest of the coven. If Kai was still the same man he was over a year ago, my father won't be alive today and the same goes for half, if not more of our coven. He saved my life and countless others. He's saved yours, too." Bonnie opened her mouth to retort and Jo raised her hand. "Yes, I know. After he put you in danger in the first place, I know. But he still did it, Bonnie. That must have – it must have counted for something, right?"

Bonnie said nothing.

"He's … he's a good man. I'd never have imagined a year ago that I would be the one to say this. But it's the truth."

"I can't accept that."

"Can't or won't?"

Bonnie was silent.

"If you came here to harm Kai, I'm not going to let you."

Bonnie started at the sudden hardness in the other woman's voice. "I didn't come here for that," Bonnie said vehemently. "We need his help. I've worked with people I've hated before in the past. I can keep my personal feelings out of it."

Jo stared at her searchingly, and Bonnie stared back. Then the doctor nodded, apparently satisfied.

"OK, then. Help me get this little one to bed then we'll go and take a look at all the lovely presents you brought from Whitmore."

* * *

Liv Parker showed up just as the dinner places were being set. It was a good meal. Bonnie was so hungry that anything would have tasted good at that point in time but she had to admit that Alaric and Damon really outdid themselves. It was also a bit disorganized, between the conversations that kept starting and stopping and going over each other as everyone tried to keep up to date on a year's worth of stories. Occasionally, the baby monitor would beep and Alaric – it was always Alaric, never Jo – would jump to his feet and check in the nursery. When he came back after the third false alarm, Jo shook her head and told him to save his energy for the night-time feedings.

Everything was so peaceful, Bonnie found herself thinking sometime after her second glass of wine. So peaceful and so normal. While back at home, life had come to a petrified halt.

Finally, dinner was over. The twins were still sleeping and Liv took Bonnie upstairs. She didn't seem any more enthusiastic towards Bonnie and Damon than she was a few hours ago but she did show Bonnie the room they would be sharing and even offered to switch beds with her if Bonnie liked.

"No, but thanks," Bonnie replied, a little surprised at Liv's friendliness – her version of it, of course. "You know, Damon and I could have just booked a hotel."

"Wow, hooking up already? I thought it'd take him at least a couple of years post-Doppelganger to get into your pants."

Bonnie gaped. "What? Er… no. Also, ugh. I meant separate rooms; Damon and I aren't in a relationship." As a matter of fact, last month was the first time Bonnie had seen him in ages but that was hardly Liv's business.

"You don't need to be in a relationship to hook up," Liv said wryly.

"Trust me, I _do_." Bonnie retorted. Then she fell silent and turned to the box she was unpacking, fighting the urge to check her nose to see if it was growing. What happened in Europe, stayed in Europe, she reminded herself. And as for what happened _before_.

That didn't count. Not in the least.

"Well, I'm certain Damon will still go for you someday. I think if he wasn't so hung up on the Doppelganger, he'd have gone for you years ago. Didn't he have the whole Protector of the Bennett line going on for a century? That's a long time to stand guard over a bloodline and not get some compensation."

"OK first of all, gross. Secondly, I've done plenty for Damon over the years. I think I've more than _compensated_ him. And finally, Protector of the Bennett line? Don't make me laugh. I hope he's not going about telling people that because he's not going to get a reference from me."

Liv hummed, looking contemplative. "So the doppelganger's gone for good and Damon's single? Why do I find that hard to believe? You sure she's really gone? She didn't have him swear some kind of fidelity blood-oath until she returned? No, that won't work; Damon would have died by now… No, she's probably already flown back in from Europe and is hiding somewhere in that huge house of theirs so her girlfriends won't shame her. Yeah, that sounds about right."

"It sounds to me like you're weirdly interested in what's going on in Damon's pants."

"Yuck." Liv shuddered. "OK, so if you're not hooking up with Damon, then who's it? Did you and Jeremy get back together?"

"No." Bonnie gave Liv a look. "Why? You want him? I can give you his number."

Liv made a face. "No, thanks. I don't do younger men. That's more your thing," she said sweetly.

"Can't wait to meet the dude you're currently doing then," Bonnie retorted with equal sugar as she looked for her sleepwear with a little more agitation than necessary. "Hope I don't end up making a play for him. Oh wait, that's more _your_ thing, isn't it?" Not exactly the best comeback, and heaven knows she wasn't in the least bit interested in Liv's boyfriends, hook-ups or otherwise. But if Bonnie had picked up anything from Damon Salvatore, it was that a good offensive was the best kind of defence.

Liv didn't answer right away, so Bonnie looked up, and was surprised. From the frozen look on Liv's face, Bonnie's weak barb had drawn blood.

"Er… Liv?"

Liv's face shifted back into its default stone-cold bitch glare. "You can try. But any guy I date would eat a sweet little thing like you for breakfast."

"Or maybe the guys you date are just lousy in bed and that's why you're always such a bitch?"

Liv flipped her outrageous curls. "Being a bitch is better than being a doormat. Have you finally grown a spine now that the doppelganger has left-"

"Her name is Elena," Bonnie said tersely.

"Or do you roll over and die for Forbes now? I'm guessing there's no need to ask if you still do that for the Salvatores. _Ow!_ "

A tiny – well, maybe not so tiny – zing had zipped out of Bonnie and hit the other woman square on the cheek.

"Oops, my bad," Bonnie purred.

"Did you just give me a zit?" Liv yelled, rushing to the mirror.

Bonnie shrugged.

Liv glared at her through the glass, her own fingers curling into a hex pattern. Bonnie braced herself, ready to throw it back at her.

Then Liv's hand dropped to her side and she smiled ruefully. "I guess I had that coming."

"You think?"

"So not a doormat, anymore, Bonnie. Looks like your time-out with my brother really brought out your inner bitch."

Quickly, Bonnie turned back to her box, her hands balled into fists. She managed – barely – to rein herself in.

"Whatever, Liv. Are we going to get along or do I really need to book that hotel?"

"Relax, _miyagi_ ," Liv said, surprising Bonnie by mentioning the nickname she had given her when she – Bonnie – had foolishly thought that she was training Liv.

What a joke.

"I wanted to know who I was dealing with," Liv continued. "Now I know."

"Know what?"

Liv smiled. "I know we're going to get along just fine." She threw herself on her bed. "I'm taking you to the Great Coven Leader, tomorrow by the way. So make sure you bring your A-game."

Bonnie was silent, as she gathered her bathroom things. On the tip of her tongue were the same questions she had thrown earlier at Jo – why Liv was also so _normal_ about the brother she once hated, the brother that had killed the twin she loved so much.

Then Bonnie decided that it was none of her business. None of the Parkers were, really. She was only here because she had to be and once she got the help she needed, she was leaving and hopefully, never looking back.

She did hesitate at the bathroom door, and when she looked back she caught Liv's sober face, staring at her.

"Tyler and Matt are doing great at the academy," Bonnie said, softly. "Matt and I get together once in a while, and sometimes Tyler drops by. I don't think he's dating anyone serious, either."

Liv's raccoon-shadowed eyes brightened up a little. Then she made a face quickly to hide it. "You and Matt, huh? Is he the one that you're hooking up – sorry, I mean, that you're in a relationship with then?"

"Oh shut up, Liv!" Bonnie snapped, shaking her head and closing the door behind her.

* * *

 _July 2013_

 _Whitmore_

When Bonnie turned the corner as she walked from the showers to her dorm room, she spotted a familiar dark-blue suited figure walking away from her on the corridor.

Her heart stuttered, the beginning of panic rising. Without thinking, she dashed the few yards to him, her flip-flops slapping on the floor. He was about to turn the corner when she grabbed his wrist, spinning him around.

"Hey!" yelped the...

…completely unfamiliar person staring down at her as if she was crazy.

Bonnie dropped his wrist quickly. "I... I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else." Embarrassment burned through her as she realized just how ridiculous she seemed, standing in her bathrobe, waylaying a complete stranger.

Too late, she noticed the clipboard in his other hand. Of course. A building inspector.

Sometime during the past school year, Whitmore College had been sold. Aaron Whitmore's death had marked the extinction of the Whitmore dynasty and the college and the rest of their legacy had been sold off in parts or as a whole to either a consortium of investors or another wealthy dynasty, depending on which rumour you believed. No one quite seemed to know much about the new owners of the university beside the facts that they had chosen to keep the old name and they planned several massive improvements to the campus real estate. Extensive construction work had been scheduled for the summer; flyers and emails were being sent around to residents in affected dormitories, including Bonnie's own.

So this was not the first time that Bonnie had seen an inspector prowling around the dormitory.

It was the first time she had accosted one, though.

The man gave her an uncertain nod, still staring at her warily. She took a step back, tried for a placating smile. In turn, she got a "lady, you're crazy" look, and the stranger turned on his heel and walked off briskly.

It was an honest mistake, Bonnie told herself, as she plodded back to her room. After all, how many men over six feet wore a navy suit in the middle of July? It was quite funny, really.

But she couldn't muster any humour for the next unexpected encounter that was waiting for her.

This time it was in the form of two tickets lying beside the pyjamas she had spread on her bed.

She picked up the first one and stared at it, her eyebrows climbing higher and higher in her face.

"What is this?" she asked, whirling to the girl that was sitting at her desk, textbooks spread in front of her.

Elena turned to give her a bored look. "A choice. Europe or Portland. Pick one."

"Here's a thought," Bonnie muttered, crumpling the hard paper in her fist. "How about neither?"

Elena didn't blink. "There are more copies where that came from. If you want me to choose for you, I'd be happy to."

Bonnie took a deep breath, counted back from ten, and reminded herself that her childhood friend could no longer survive an aneurysm. "I've taking summer courses."

"Defer them. With all the construction that'll be happening, you're spending half your time looking for your class, and the other half getting there. Besides, if anyone has earned an extra year or two in college, it's you. What you haven't earned is the right to carry all that baggage inside you for three more months. So this is what I've come up with: We can have an all-expenses paid Eurotrip to fix us – or you have an all-expenses solo trip to Portland, where you can visit breweries, smell the roses, and fix whatever is going on between you and Kai Parker-"

" _There's nothing going on between me and Kai Parker!_ " Bonnie hissed, hands balled into fists.

The fire place – which had been cold and dead all day – came to life, flames rising with a roar, and spitting embers.

Elena's chair scraped, as she shifted hastily away, and Bonnie took another deep shuddering breath.

The flames went down.

"Obviously," Elena deadpanned.

Bonnie sat down abruptly.

For a moment, the room was silent while Bonnie felt her head bow under the weight of her friend's – former friend's?- gaze.

"Europe, it is then," Elena said softly, and she turned back to her desk. "Chicks before dicks. I like it."

Bonnie laughed in disbelief. "You can't make me go anywhere, you know."

"Wanna bet?" Elena murmured.

Bonnie glared at the other girl's serene face, at her brown eyes dancing with mischief. Then Bonnie turned to her bed and picked up the second ticket. "Company of three?"

"You, me, Caroline. We all need the therapy. Plus, I think it's embarrassing that all three of us hit twenty without ever leaving this country, don't you?"

"Just us three? No… Salvatore in company?" For the first time, Bonnie was intrigued.

"Nope."

"And what does your boyfriend think about that?"

Elena laughed loudly. "Chicks before dicks. Also… who effing cares?"

Bonnie turned her face so that Elena won't see the smile that was threatening to form.

Instead, she muttered, "I'll think about it."

She ignored the triumphant look on Elena's face and put on her pyjamas. She was hanging up her bathrobe, when she remembered her earlier encounter.

"Did someone come in here while I was in the shower?"

When Elena didn't answer right away, Bonnie turned to her friend. "Elena?"

Elena raised her head from the books she had apparently already retreated into. "Sorry. What, Bonnie?"

"I thought I saw…" When Elena kept looking at her blankly, Bonnie shook her head. "Never mind. It was nothing."

Elena shrugged, her head already bowing back over her books.

Bonnie sat down on the bed and stared fluffing her pillow when her gaze caught that first ticket – the crumpled paper with PDX peeking through the wrinkles.

Under Bonnie's gaze, it levitated into the air and burst into flames.

She caught Elena's gaze as the ashes fell to the ground – a gaze filled with pity and worry – and Bonnie lay back on the bed abruptly, turning her back to her friend, staring unseeingly at the wall in front of her.

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _Portland, Oregon_

The time difference between Virginia and Oregon caught up with Bonnie sometime in the early hours of the morning; she woke up abruptly and so decidedly that she knew there was no point trying to go back to sleep soon.

She stared up at the ceiling and thought of all the events that had led her to now – in Portland, in _his_ sister's home, as she counted down the hours before she would see him again for the first time in a year.

When she had returned to Mystic Falls last month – after almost a year away from her hometown – their makeshift crew of town defenders had been divided about reaching out to Portland for help. Bonnie had been the one to finally shut down that idea.

Yes, she had admitted, the Gemini had fought and won against the heretics in the past. But, she reminded them, their gang of seven – Bonnie, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Tyler, Matt and Enzo – had fought and won over worse than a pair of vampire-witch freaks over the years, hadn't they? They didn't need the unpredictable Gemini, she had insisted. And the others had mostly believed her.

But weeks had passed and the bodies kept piling up. And maybe, at the back of Bonnie's mind, was the hope that the Gemini – that _he_ – would reach out to them first. But it never happened.

Then they had suffered a loss of one of their own and Bonnie knew it was time to swallow her pride. This was the only option left to them.

Although there was one option open to _Bonnie_. She could pack her bags, move out of Virginia and leave Mystic Falls, Whitmore, and whatever other territory the heretics chose to claim, to the mercy of fate. After all, she had done it before, sort of. And in the past year, the two towns had survived through a rampage of nomadic werewolves, and an inexplicable visitation from a dragon of all things – all without her. Surely, Mystic Falls-Whitmore could weather a pair of misplaced heretics.

But Bonnie knew, deep down, that this time around, she wouldn't do it – couldn't. This was one battle that she won't be able to walk away from.

The days leading up to this trip had seen her emotions run the gamut from dread to anticipation. It changed with every passing day, every passing hour. The only constant thought in her head was –

 _Get it over with._

And in the next twenty-four hours, regardless of the outcome, she would.

From the corner of her eye, she caught the flash of her phone's alert light. She picked it up and saw a message from Matt. Heart beating, she tapped it open and then heaved a relieved sigh.

The town was quiet today. No deaths. No incidents. No news was the best news.

She tapped a response back. "I'm getting help. Keep your fingers crossed."

He buzzed back immediately. "Take care of yourself there, OK?" That brought a smile to her face.

There was an older message from Caroline that must have come in during dinnertime, asking how things were. Bonnie decided to take the chance and call back. It was probably breaking dawn in Whitmore and Caroline was usually an early riser.

"Hey," Caroline's voice sounded sleepy.

OK, she was _usually_ an early riser.

"Hey. Sorry to wake you."

"No. No problem. How're you doing? How was your trip? How're Alaric and Jo and the kids? Hope Damon is behaving himself."

"OK. Fine. Great. He doesn't have a choice." She grinned. "Did I miss anything?"

Caroline laughed softly. "Nice one. So… have you seen him?"

Bonnie snuck a glance across the room, where she could make out Liv's sleeping form in the dark. "I'll see him tomorrow."

Care sighed. "Bonnie, I know-"

"I think Jo's at the door. Talk to you later?"

"Sure, Bon. 'Night."

"'Night, Care."

She stayed up for an hour after that, thoughts like ghosts chasing through her head. When she finally did sleep back, she dreamt of red-cloaked, redheaded heretics, the vengeful face of Lily Salvatore, winged stars falling in flames from the sky, and a warlock with grey eyes and a streak of white shooting out of his dark hair.

* * *

 **A/N** : So this is my new multi-chaptered fic, Long Shadows. Hopefully despite the name, it won't be too long and should be wrapped up in 8-10 chapters. I am still working on _Yibbum_ , don't worry. I just need to untangle a Mereneese knot for the next 5-6 chapters before I started posting again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have writing it. And please if you read this, I'd really love to hear what you think. Be it good or bad, I appreciate getting feedback and reviews.

Keep the BonKai flag flying!

 **A/N #2 (1/24/16)** : Dear Readers, I am currently re-writing this story for plot and characterization reasons. The problems in continuity were frankly speaking, driving me batty. Hopefully, it will be a better tale when it's done. I'm sorry that it's going to take a bit longer to get to its end now. But I strongly believe the story will be all the more better for it. If you're a new reader, thanks for dropping by. If you're an old reader, please take the time to re-read the chapters. There's some brand new content, and also a lot of modified content with important clues that I didn't put the first time around.

And finally, thanks to my beta **thenameismaynard a.k.a. keenan24** who has betad both versions of this story.


	2. 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

 _June 2014_

"You look like you're going to throw up," Damon observed.

Bonnie pinched the bridge of her nose, and put her sunglasses firmly back in place. "I won't."

"Well, you look it. Are you coming down with something? Need a little blood?"

Bonnie stared at the outstretched wrist and felt like retching. She wound down the side glass, took a whiff of fresh air. "I'm fine, Damon. It's just the heat."

"Whatever you do, don't throw up in the car."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said dryly.

"You're not nervous, are you? The great Bonnie Bennett? Nervous about seeing this punk?"

"I said I'm fine."

"I mean, if I didn't know better, I'd say you dragged me all the way to Portland because you needed some moral support to meet this guy."

Bonnie bit back her words. The last thing she wanted was to get into another over-prolonged bickering session with Damon. It was the strangest thing. If anyone had asked her anytime since over a year – anytime since her second trip from 1903 to be precise – Bonnie would have described her relationship with Damon Salvatore as borderline estranged; but a month back in Mystic Falls and they'd fallen into a kind of groove – less than the friends she'd thought they had become in 1994, but more than the reluctant allies they had been for most of their acquaintance. A compromise that only time, and time apart, had enabled them to achieve.

It was comforting, in its own way. If she and Damon could reach an understanding despite all the blood and betrayal in their shared past, then maybe someday, she and _him_ could…

She almost laughed out loud at the hopelessly naïve train of her thoughts.

 _Yeah, right_ , she thought bitterly.

Beside her, Damon droned on. "I mean, it was great to see Alaric and Jo all over again, don't get me wrong. I'm just wondering how much help a vampire is when you need to meet the great Gemini coven leader. Especially when you're meeting over another vampire problem."

"The operative word there being _another_ ," Bonnie couldn't help quipping. "You being an on-going case."

"Now, that's the Bonnie I know and fear," Damon crowed. "For a moment there, you got me worried."

She sighed.

* * *

 _June 2013_

The red-clad figure was rising.

The headless heretic was standing. Stood.

Horror was a bottomless pit opening in Bonnie's stomach as the creature she had just decapitated five minutes ago, stretched out its hands and caught the head that flew into them.

 _It can't be._

When they were children, and the girls still played with dolls, all three of them – Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline – had one day got into a fight with Jeremy Gilbert and with some clever lying, put most of the blame for it on him. The next day after school, they had gone to Elena's house and seen their My Little Pony dolls lined up on the bed with their heads ripped off.

Watching the heretic carefully place his head back on his shoulders, the red sizzle of magic as it sealed seamlessly into place, the red coat of blood on its neck the only sign of what had happened before – was like a macabre call back to that day.

 _I took off its head!_

 _'Suckers don't die easy.'_

 _Yes, but not that they couldn't die at all!_

The eyes blinked open, dark fathomless pools of swirling black magic, and Bonnie felt her brain breaking as she watched its lips part in a chant, a hand stretched out at her.

 _How do you kill something that can't die?_

She was tensing to push back the hex – the only thing that she could manage to think of at the moment was to send its own magic back at it – when something slammed into her side and she went down, rolling across the floor in a tangle of legs and arms.

She came to a stop with her back on the floor and her attacker on top of her and for the second time that night, Kai Parker was in her face.

"What the hell are you still doing here?"

She was too dazed to answer. She pushed back at his shoulders but his whole body was locked around her own.

"Get off me," she managed, weakly.

"I told you to get out. I told my –" he breathed hard, then turned his head and cursed loudly.

Bonnie shifted, trying again to push him off her but it only seemed to make her _fit_ into him some more. She shivered, and it must have been a mixture of her fury at him and the adrenaline running through her veins that made her feel so enflamed.

He turned back to her and his eyes were smouldering.

"Stop that," he said, his voice low and gravelly.

"Let me go, Kai," she said weakly.

"Oh, I will," he snarled.

She blinked and the chaos of the wedding hall vanished.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Liv was waiting for them in front of the diner. She gave Bonnie's outfit the full up-and-down inspection, taking in her slick bun, her smart dark suit with the green camisole peeking out from underneath and her sensible shoes. She nodded approvingly.

"Nice. You dressed up. That's five points already with the Council."

Liv herself was wearing a pantsuit and a complicated braid that made her look like a completely different person.

She had fixed the zit, Bonnie noted with an inward smirk. The small observation broke her own bundle of nerves somewhat.

"I guess I'll be taking those five points back then," Damon drawled, hands in his jean pockets, leaning against the parked car. Bonnie wasn't sure, but she strongly suspected that he wore either the exact same black T-shirt every-day or he had an infinite number of black T-shirts in the same style.

"You can wear anything you like, Damon. You're not coming."

He straightened at that. "No way."

"Coven rules. No vampires allowed in the Council halls."

"Even if the coven leader vouches for me?"

"Especially when the Praetor does _not_ vouch for you."

"The what now?"

"That's Gemini-speak for coven leader. Get used to it. And get used to not being included in the witchy stuff, vampire."

"What the-" Damon started, advancing at Liv.

Bonnie stepped between them. "It's OK. Bunch of bigots, right? We considered this." She took a deep breath. "I'll go in, meet him, get the spell and I'll be out in a jiffy."

Damon looked over her head at Liv. "You Geminis are freaks. I'm not letting Bonnie in there by herself and I'd like to see you try to stop me."

"Damon," Bonnie started.

"Oh, he's welcome to try," Liv said, her eyes dancing. "Just don't say I didn't warn you when for example, your daylight ring suddenly stops working."

Just like the witches' house back at Mystic Falls, Bonnie thought, and she could tell from Damon's face that he was remembering that, too. His powerlessness made him even more furious. She gave him a reassuring smile that belied her own nervousness.

"I'll be fine, Damon. He's a good guy now, remember?"

"The same good guy we stabbed in the back a year ago. You never know when these things come up again."

Bonnie looked away. "That's water under the bridge. We're even."

 _"We're even, Bonster."_

She suppressed a shiver.

"You're actually meeting with the Council," Liv interjected.

They stared at her. "I thought I was meeting with K- your leader."

"You can't just waltz in here and get a one-on-one with the Praetor. There's a chain. You climb it."

"But-"

"Anyway, he sits on the council, too. As the head."

Bonnie thought about that, then faked a grin for Damon. "See, even better?"

"Better? That's the council of the creepy-ass twin-murdering coven, remember? They're probably the ones who came up with the twin-murdering rules," he retorted back but seemed to back down. "Make sure Judgy gets out of there in one piece, Liv," he warned. "Or you're answering to me."

Liv gave him the finger. He answered with a big smile, fangs and all. Outside the Saltzmans's house, his vampiric nature had free reign.

Bonnie shook her head at the both of them.

Liv opened the door to the diner with a big flourishing bow. Bonnie got a peek of its dim interior, before Liv stepped in behind her and the door closed.

Then the diner vanished.

* * *

In a flash of colour, they stood in a huge hallway, walls and floor made of shiny, polished marble. A spiral staircase rose up in front of them, reaching to a ceiling that was so high, Bonnie couldn't decipher the elaborate symbols etched into it.

"Portal through the diner door," Bonnie said curtly, hoping her voice did not betray how awestruck she felt. "Neat."

Liv threw her a look that told Bonnie she wasn't fooling anyone. Then she led her across the hall. There were two large doors on the east side and she pushed them open, standing to the side to let Bonnie through.

Bonnie curled her hands into fists, and walked inside with her head held high.

They stepped into a hall shaped in a half-circle. It was arranged like a church, with a half-dozen benches on either side of the aisle that Bonnie and Liv walked down. The far side of the hall, the curved area and where an altar would have been in a Catholic church, the floor was elevated about a foot from the rest of the hall and a high curved bench lined the wall. Behind the bench sat eleven men and women of varying ages and races, and from the prickling on her skin, Bonnie knew she was in the presence of very powerful witches.

Not a church, Bonnie realized as she and Liv sat down on the first row on the right side of the room.

More like a courtroom.

Was she on trial?

"Olivia Parker, you may approach the bench and state your prayer."

The person that spoke was an elderly, snow-bearded white man seated at the left-side of the bench, closest to the empty chair in the centre. Joshua Parker.

There were eleven people but the bench was clearly meant to be occupied by thirteen. Bonnie could tell because there were two empty spaces – one at the extreme left and one at the centre. Kai Parker was not here.

Bonnie bent down and stared hard at her hands, forcing down the relief and disappointment – _mostly disappointment_ – that had risen inside her.

Olivia walked to the centre of the hall, looked up at the bench and started talking.

A lot of what she said went over Bonnie's head. It sounded like some complicated, legalistic formal form of greeting in a mixture of Greek and Latin during which Olivia acknowledged by name every person in the room. She barely even recognized her own name when Olivia mentioned her. And there seemed to be all kinds of magic constantly at work, the purposes of which Bonnie couldn't grasp but she could still feel the tingling sense of.

After a while, Olivia was done talking and silence settled in the room.

"Let Ms. Bennett give her own testimony," said an older, dark-skinned Latino woman that sat at the furthest seat to the left.

Bonnie stood up awkwardly. "Hello. I mean, good afternoon." She tried a smile. She didn't get one in return. Biting back a grimace, she continued, "Thank you for seeing me on such short-"

Liv cleared her throat noisily. Bonnie stared. Liv cleared her throat again, and made an awkward beckoning kind of gesture with her shoulder.

It took Bonnie a moment, then she blushed. "Er… excuse me. Sorry."

She walked out of her seat and came to stand beside Liv. Staring up at the non-smiling faces above her was even more disconcerting from this position.

"So, thanks again for seeing me. It all started-"

The woman cut right through her words. "What measures have been taken to contain the heretics in Mystic Falls?"

Bonnie blinked. _Rude much, old lady?_ She thought but wisely, kept that to herself. "So far, vervain is the only thing that works. We're pumping it into the drinking water. It's a bit hard on the…"

The unsmiling faces were setting into harder lines and Bonnie quickly skipped over the part where she was about to say, _"it's a bit hard on the non-heretic vampires in town but they manage."_

"Wards don't hold up for long. The heretics just siphon out the magic from them. In fact, the best restraints right now are the old school bolts and bars, dosed with liquid vervain. Everything magical just ends up being more juice for their batteries, if you know what I mean." She cringed. Not the most formal of expressions but really the most apt.

"You confirm what Olivia stated, that the heretics reappeared in Mystic Falls exactly one month ago?" The question came from a slightly younger male wizard.

"Yes."

"And you are certain that these are of the group that we conquered during the Fourth Battle of Mystic Falls?"

"I recognized one of them. From the _Battle_ ," Bonnie replied. She supposed it was a battle of sorts. She had never thought of it that was before. She guessed she had been in so many of those high-powered confrontations of magic and violence that she took them for granted.

The _Fourth_? Left to Bonnie, she would have counted differently.

"You could not have recognized any of the heretics. They wore hoods and you were carted off with the rest of the children and the mundanes."

Bonnie's jaw dropped. "I was not-" she began furiously but Joshua Parker had already cut in.

"Ms Bennett fought in that battle. She saved the lives of Isaiah Long, Antonia Ghiacci and Judi Stewart and even beheaded one of the heretics. It resurrected, of course, but she did not know then they couldn't be easily destroyed."

One or two others murmured in agreement and looked at her with slightly less unsmiling faces.

The man that spoke before still looked sceptical. "I do not recall her presence. I do recall that the majority of the Mystic Falls contingent left the moment the heretics attacked. Your," and she could literally hear the air quotes in his voice, "'vampires' abandoned us and eventually, so did you. Furthermore, these heretics were released as a result of your actions on behalf of these 'vampires' of yours."

She could hear the blood rushing through her ears and she started speaking when Liv grabbed her elbow. Bonnie turned at the other woman and saw the warning in Liv's eyes.

Her hand still firm on Bonnie, Liv spoke. "Inquiries into the release of the 1903 Prisoners were concluded during -" She rattled off the date in Latin. "It is _clusus_ to third parties, too."

"She is not a third party. She was _implicates_ ," the man said belligerently. "The _venia_ came from the Praetor, _against_ the council's recommendation. Her very testimony is suspect."

"She is Sheila Bennett's grand-daughter," another man said sharply.

"With no formal _Praecantatio Disciplina,_ " the old lady, the first one that spoke, retorted. "She associates with vampires. Yes, members of our coven have entered short-term alliances with _nefandus bestia_ , but her case is unprecedented. She has more loyalty to them than any witch of her acquaintance. We cannot in good faith place any value on her testimony without independent verification."

Liv's grip on her elbow was almost painful. Bonnie yanked herself away.

"People are dying in Mystic Falls," she said through gritted teeth. "Mundanes. Witches. Werewolves. Although you probably don't care about them or the vampires. But what about your own kind? What about the Gemini mandate to protect mundane existence?"

"You will speak in turn." Unsurprisingly, that was from the first young man – Mr. Asshat, Bonnie decided, mentally christening him.

"We are already aware of the casualties in question," Joshua Parker said.

Bonnie started. "Already aware? You mean, you've known all along about this? And _you've done nothing_?"

"You will speak-"

"Oh, shut up!" And it was satisfying to see all their stuffy faces bristle in outrage as one. Beside her, Liv covered her face with her hands. "The heretics have been on a rampage for a _month_ and you've all been sitting on your collective asses while my so-called _nefaria_ have been risking their lives for the town."

"The heretics are only a danger because you let them out!"

And there it was.

Bonnie raised her hands. "I. am. sorry! OK? I did this. I know. _Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa_. But it's done. They got out. Two remain. I'd kill them myself if I knew how. Nothing works. Not fire. Not decapitation. Not a stake through the heart. They don't need an invitation. They can walk in daylight. These things are terrorizing my town. Tell me what to do to end this and I'll be on my way."

The old lady eyed Bonnie with disapproval written all over her face. "You're here to present a prayer, young woman, not to make demands."

"Oh for heaven's sake, where's Kai Parker? I didn't come all the way here to judged and lectured by you jerks. Where's your blasted coven leader?"

Liv's hands were still covering her face and now she moaned a little.

The council erupted. They all seemed to be talking at once, a loud murmur of voices that increased in volume and intensity. Bonnie couldn't make out the words. A lot of it was in Latin. Most of it was punctuated by sharp glares and gestures at Bonnie.

After almost ten minutes of this, Joshua Parker raised his hands and they fell silent.

"The council will convene privately. Ms Bennett, you may take your leave. We will inform you through Olivia-"

It took everything in Bonnie not to launch herself at them. "Oh my god, are you even listening to me? Don't… fucking _inform_ me. Just tell me what to do!"

Liv gave her another hard pinch. Bonnie turned on her, eyes flashing…

…and they were now standing in the doorway of the diner.

* * *

Liv pushed her outside.

"What just happened?" Bonnie asked, gasping.

"You heard my father. Council is meeting in private now. Nice job pissing them off, by the way."

Bonnie's words were cut short by Damon rushing up to them.

"What's going on? Did they cancel on you or what?"

She shook her head, blinking back the angry tears that were threatening to fall. "It's over. I don't know what they're deciding. This was just a waste of time." She started walking towards the car.

Damon grabbed her shoulder. "What? We came all the way here when they'd already made up their minds? Is Kai in there? Daylight ring or not, I'm going to kick his-!"

"He wasn't there. It won't have made any difference. Let's just go."

"No, we can't leave. They have to hear us out at least!"

"They did. I don't… I don't think it made any difference."

"What's going on? When did all this happen? You were in and out in like a second. I thought you left something in the car."

Bonnie stared at him. It was suddenly clear what the confusion was.

"Damon, I've been in there for almost half an hour."

He stared back. "Huh?"

Both of them turned to look at Liv, who had been leaning against the car watching their exchange.

She shook her head, smirking at Bonnie. "You really have no _disciplina_ do you?"

Bonnie took a step forward and Liv backed away, her hands coming up in mock-surrender. "Sorry! You stepped through a portal to the Gemini headquarters and time works a little differently there. That's all." She looked at Damon. "She kind of lost her temper there, too. Which, for the record, is never a good idea when you're talking to eleven bad-ass witches. Anyone of them could have hexed you into a frog just by squinting. Let's not forget the fact that you came to them for a favour."

Bonnie scowled, feeling just a bit shamefaced.

"And if that wasn't bad enough," Liv continued, "she demanded to speak to Kai! Like he was a store manager and the customer service clerks were giving you a hard time," she shuddered. "I take back what I said last night. You didn't find your inner bitch, Bonnie. You found your inner T-Rex."

Damon guffawed and Bonnie kicked him until he stopped. "Ouch! You know you just proved her point?"

"Look," Liv finished, "the Council will decide when they decide. You can't rush these things."

"People are dying," Bonnie said miserably. "They've known about this for a month and they…" She was tired. She was just so tired.

She opened the passenger door and sat down heavily.

"Why can't they just tell me how to kill these things? What the hell is the point of keeping it a secret? What's the big deal?"

"You know, if any of you guys besides Tyler had stuck around during the battle, you'd have witnessed first-hand how to kill a heretic and probably realized why it's a big deal," Liv said mildly.

Damon at least, had the sense to look slightly guilty.

Bonnie glared. "I didn't stick around during the battle because-"

 _Kai._

Bonnie swallowed down the feelings of anger and disappointment and _heartache_ that were consuming her.

She had dreaded seeing him today. But at least she would have seen him and had that done and over with. Now, the chance of an encounter loomed ahead of her – in some vague, uncertain future – and the anticipation exhausted her.

She was so tired.

She had given herself a clean break last year – or she had tried to. But somehow, she had still got dragged again into the middle of another supernatural battle.

She had been fighting one supernatural battle or another since she was a teenager.

When would it ever end?

"Can we just go back now? We'll stay a night and leave for Virginia in the morning. Whenever your Council make up their mind, they can reach me by magical email. They teach that in _Praecantatio Disciplina,_ right?" she added nastily.

" _Googlas 101_ ," Liv deadpanned.

Bonnie gave her a cutting glare and Liv had the sense to stay silent for the rest of the ride.

She checked her phone when she remembered. No messages. Thank goodness for that at least.

No news was good news.

* * *

Liv dropped off a few block to the Saltzmans's home, claiming some vague errand. The rest of the drive home, Damon grumbled – while Bonnie silently agreed – that the blonde witch was skipping out on baby duty.

As he pulled up the driveway, they could already hear the clear sounds of babies wailing through the open window.

Alaric was still in school and one twin needed a diaper change, the other needed a nap and Jo almost wept with relief at the sight of both of them. She all but threw the cranky baby into Damon's arms then dragged Bonnie to the nursery to help with the other.

"What am I supposed to do?" Damon called after Jo over the baby's screams.

"Rock her, sing to her, cuddle her. You're almost two hundred years old, Damon. Figure it out."

In the nursery, Jo insisted on hearing everything that happened with the Council. Her eyes were sharp and attentive even as she changed her baby's diapers with robotic efficiency as Bonnie narrated the disappointing events of the day while handing over the required equipment.

"I came all the way here to be picked apart by a bunch of old snobs," Bonnie concluded with a scowl.

Jo gave her a sceptical look while with one hand, she flipped over her progeny with a briskness that made Bonnie's heart jump. "You shouldn't have lost your temper."

"That is so not what is important right now!"

"And then demanding to speak to the Praetor like that?" Jo tut-tutted. "Well, it's too late to fix that. The council's told you they'll come to a decision and they will. You just have to be patient." She beckoned to Bonnie to hold onto a waving arm while she pulled on the baby's clothes.

"Why is everything up to the council, anyway? What's the point of the coven leader then?"

Jo sat on the rocking chair with the now changed and freshly dressed child and threw Bonnie an amused glance. "You want Kai to play favourites for you?"

Bonnie felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Of course not! I just want to understand how things work with you Gemini. I'm not a political major but isn't there a reason why the President calls the shots during a state of emergency?"

Jo snorted as she positioned her baby to nurse. "Bonnie, as we speak, there's a vampire infestation in Brooklyn, the dragon-worshipping cults have been on the rise since last Fall, rumours of the Augustine Society being revived, and there's the chance that one of the largest covens in the country is about to break their treaty with us."

Bonnie blinked. " _What_?"

"If any of _those_ actualise, _that_ would be a state of emergency. But two heretics in Mystic Falls? Seriously? If that were the case, the coven would have burnt down that town down years ago, and salted the ashes. Do you know how many times they considered that during your Klaus episodes… or your Silas episodes…? If all it takes are a couple of heretics, then just your sheer vampire population would be enough reason."

"It's not the same thing. They can't be killed."

"That you know of. You thought Klaus couldn't be killed … until he could. And Silas. And every other threat you've faced," she said calmly. She reached over and gave Bonnie a one-armed hug. "Hang in there, OK? Your town's weathered through a lot worse."

Bonnie bit her lip and looked away. "Could you…" she cleared her throat. "I don't suppose you could speak to K- to your brother about this?"

"The council will recommend their decision to the leader in due time…" she said and Bonnie groaned. Then Jo winked. "But if I give my twin brother a call and let him know how my day went, that's not anybody's business."

"Thanks," Bonnie said softly. She looked down at her fingers, which had automatically twisted in her lap at the new possibility of still meeting with _him_ before her return to Virginia, and swallowed hard against the tension that threatened to rise within her.

"Now please go get something to eat and make sure Damon isn't snacking on my baby."

An hour later, Alaric was home from school, the babies were both asleep, and Liv strolled in, curls bouncing and completely oblivious to Damon's dirty looks.

"Any word from the Council?" Bonnie asked at once.

To her disappointment, Liv shook her head.

While Alaric and Jo were in the living room catching up, Liv dragged the others to the kitchen. Damon poured himself a glass of bourbon – ignoring Bonnie's glare – and listened as Liv informed them that sometime during her still vaguely defined assignment, she had come up with the idea of the trio doing babysitting duty while the Saltzmans got a much needed date night.

Damon gulped. "We didn't come here to-"

"We'll do it," Bonnie said at once. "I think it's a great idea." Despite everything, she could be generous to a friend. Besides, it won't be the first time they'd juggle life-and-death with the boring minutiae of day-to-day existence. Babysitting for a night was nothing compared to organizing the Homecoming Dance while mentally duelling with an immortal dark wizard.

Liv beamed at her and smirked at Damon.

Half an hour after Liv had gone to tell Jo, the older woman came to them with a face wreathed with smiles and gave her two guests big hugs.

"Thank you so much! Once in a while the older witches come around to lend a hand but never for the whole night. This night will be the second time I've had sex since the twins were born."

Damon, in the middle of a sip of bourbon, spat it out.

"TMI?" Jo asked. "Sorry. When you've been through a pregnancy and birth, you tend to lose all filters. If I had a dollar for every doctor, nurse, intern, janitor that put their fingers up my-"

"I will watch your kids for _two nights_ if you stop talking now!" Damon shouted.

Jo smiled broadly and left, dragging the girls with her.

It was fun, helping her pack for her short stay. There was the question of appropriate nightwear. Jo had a few post-baby ones that she was a little self-conscious about trying out. Bonnie thought she should go for it. Liv countered that Alaric would be lucky enough to be getting any. He won't need any fancy wrapping.

That made Bonnie laugh so hard, she was in stitches for five minutes.

Alaric popped his head in just in time to see the gaggle of laughing women and took to his heels.

It was Damon that eventually came to fetch Jo.

"There's a dude downstairs, fairly good looking, borderline alcoholic, I think he's waiting for his date…?"

"I'll be down in five."

Liv called him back. "Remind him to stop for condoms."

Damon Salvatore opened his mouth, and for the first time Bonnie could remember, nothing came out.

"I don't think so. No way am I going through all this ever again."

Damon fled, chased away by malicious feminine laughter.

Jo finally made it down with, to her husband's great confusion, two overnight bags.

The twins were asleep but Alaric still left Jo in the car to rush into the house one last time and give them a once over. As they all but dragged him out of the nursery, he repeated all of Jo's instructions on feedings, changes and bedtimes with a few tips of his own.

"Rachel loves being held just so." He showed how to Damon who was clearly fighting a losing battle with his eyeballs.

"We'll be fine! Just go!" Liv said as she and Damon wrestled him into the car and slammed the door.

"Bye!" Bonnie called from the door.

"Have a good time, buddy," Damon said with a knowing smirk.

"Have great sex, Jo!" Liv cooed.

The Saltzmans finally made it out, the car pulling out the driveway to the cheers and hoots of the trio behind. The only things missing were a rope of cans dangling from the license plate and the Just Married sign.

Bonnie glanced at Liv, then Damon, and she knew they were all thinking the same thing.

This was the send-off they missed out on a year ago when the dream wedding turned into a nightmare. They hadn't even finished the ceremony. The first heretic had appeared in the middle of Jo's vows.

It was her brother that had saved her that night.

Frowning now, as unwanted thoughts filled her head, Bonnie led the way back into the Saltzmans's house.

* * *

 _June 2013_

With a few hours left before the Saltzmans' wedding ceremony started, it wasn't a good sign that the wedding planner was freaking out more than the bride. Apparently, no one had done Caroline Forbes the courtesy of asking her approval of the last minute changes to the event. Jo had done her best to explain to the irate vampire that as the daughter of the former Praetor, sister of the current one, and likely mother of the future one, Josette Parker's wedding was the Gemini equivalent of a Royal Wedding. While she had been merely Jo Laughlin, estranged and prodigal daughter – and all the witches had been hiding from their new leader – the ceremony was entirely her affair, and it was going to be a simple event with Elena standing for her, and Damon standing for Alaric. But now the Gemini Coven had recently undergone some sort of reconciliation with their leader, and as a show of good faith, they had been given permission to essentially hijack the wedding.

Caroline was having none of that.

Bonnie was walking slowly through the chaotic event hall, searching for her friend with all the foreboding of a bearer of bad news. The floral contractor had called and Caroline would not like what they had to say. It was just one more thing cutting it close on an event that, according to Caroline, was already threading the line between a success and a disaster. As Bonnie weaved through workmen carrying ladders and drills, and supervisors yelling at the top of their lungs, Bonnie feared that the odds were on disaster.

She slowed even more as she passed a cluster of dusty hunks surrounding a site where a large chandelier was being hoisted, and spotted Elena and Stefan Salvatore in the distance.

Elena was standing still with arms crossed; under her straight dark hair, her face was bowed and grave. In contrast, Stefan was uncharacteristically animated, pacing in a tight arc around her, arms gesticulating wildly as he talked quickly. Bonnie was too far to hear him but clearly, something was wrong and a few days ago, her curiosity might have been piqued enough to walk over.

Now she did an about-face and walked _away_ , praying that she wasn't about to be dragged into cleaning up a new supernatural mess.

She searched, now more eagerly, for Caroline. Her friend was still nowhere in sight but Bonnie could see a trio of well-dressed women standing along the edge of the canopy that still lay on the open area. They were from a group of guests that had arrived early and that Jo had introduced to everyone earlier as 'family friends from Portland'. Bonnie didn't need that cryptic description to tell her what her own witch intuition had picked up first.

These were witches. Gemini witches.

And finally, Bonnie spotted Caroline – and in the nick of time, too! Her friend was striding at almost vamp-speed towards the trio, with a look on her face that made Bonnie believe that a vampire-witch war was about to be declared.

Bonnie all but ran to her friend's side, arriving at the start of a near-heated conversation.

"There's room for Liv to stand with her sister but that's it," Caroline was saying vehemently. "We can't add any more places to the bridal train."

"Unacceptable." The sharp word came from a petite, matron-type woman. Her magical aura was taut, competent, and Bonnie could tell that she wasn't someone to cross lightly. But even with that, from the steel in her gaze as she gazed condescendingly _up_ at Caroline, it was evident that she was capable – and willing – to set the vampire on fire.

Behind her hovered two teenage girls – one dark-skinned, and slender with darkish red curls – and another white with straight black ponytails. Their auras hummed with magical proficiency that Bonnie envied to see in witches their ages. They looked about 15, 16 at most.

"I'm sorry," Caroline was saying in a tone that sounded the opposite of sorry, "but we've already rehearsed the stage arrangements. I hope," she gave the two girls a smile that made Curly flinch and Ponytails bristle, "you girls aren't too disappointed. You can be bridesmaids some other day."

"These girls are not to be mere _bridesmaids_ ," the woman retorted. "They are representations of the covenant between the coven and the _Regium_ , portals in human form for ancestral invocation, essentials to the completion of the _Nuptialem orationem_ that will be cast on the candidates this night."

Caroline blinked. "The what for the what in the what now?"

The woman looked ready to explode. "I cannot believe Joshua put me in this position, where I need to explain our rituals to a-a… _suc-_!"

Bonnie inhaled quickly, preparing for a quick intervention – Caroline looked like if she was about to vamp out – but the bride herself beat her to the punch.

"Dame Bethany!" Jo all but shouted, appearing as if by magic between the warring factions. "You forget that not everyone has your flair of being a master of protocol. It's really quite complex, even for me." She laughed merrily. "I am beyond honoured to have your input in this, especially with such short notice."

The older woman mellowed slightly. "Speak nothing of it. This duty usually falls to me and I always rise to the occasion. Which is why," she said, eyeing Caroline, "this… _person_ … needs to step aside for m-"

Caroline took a menacing step forward. "Not on your-"

Her words ended in a muffled shriek when Bonnie daintily ran her heel into her best friend's foot.

"But we can't spare you. There're too many other things that need your attention," Jo said sweetly. "Leave Tonia and Judi with me. Of course, they're going to be in the ceremony. Will the boys also be included?" She smiled at the teenage girls who were staring at her with mingled awe and terror.

The older witch sniffed. "Of course, they will. I'll keep the children close, if you don't mind. Too many _nefaria_ wondering around for my comfort." She eyed Caroline balefully. Then she seemed to check herself. "On consideration, you keep them. I don't want you or your father to swap them out of the ceremony at the last minute and give their places to some other family."

Jo gasped. "We would never-"

The woman sniffed again. "It's been done before. And bear you mind, Josette, the Stewart and the Ghiacci families will not take the insult lightly." She turned to the girls. " _Behave_."

Once again, she had to stare up, but her face, her voice, and apparently, her sheer personality was enough to make them look absolutely terrified at the idea of whatever would happen to them if they didn't behave.

With one last smile at Jo, one last withering glare at Caroline, and a measuring glance at Bonnie, she left.

Jo smiled brightly at the girls who were now staring at her nervously. "Girls, could you go into my trailer, and try out your clothes?"

With a look of relief, the girls scampered off and the cheery mask on Jo's face slipped off to reveal the strain under it. "As if I didn't have enough on my plate today," she moaned. "I get _her_ as my matron of honour."

"Jo, are you OK?" Bonnie asked worriedly.

"No, I am not. I can't wait until this is over," Jo declared. Then she peered at Bonnie. "How are you holding up? I was coming over to check on you."

Caroline whirled on Bonnie. "Oh, Bonnie, I can't believe I forgot to ask. Are you OK? Do you need some blood? Shouldn't you take a seat or something?"

Bonnie tried not to flinch. It was not the first time that she had been drilled like this about her health that day. She supposed it made sense considering recent events – Lily Salvatore violently gate-crashing last night's bachelorette's party and Bonnie ending up waking up in the hospital – but she was simply not used to this degree of scrutiny and over-commiseration. Frankly, she was finding it unnerving.

Especially now as Caroline vamp-sped to grab a chair and forcibly pushed Bonnie into it.

"I'm fine," Bonnie said, trying to stand, only to be shoved back in. "Seriously, Care!"

Caroline scowled at her. "I don't know why you couldn't just take the day off to rest and show up in the evening. And if you have to be here, why aren't you even dressed?" She looked at Bonnie's jeans and shirt with distaste

Bonnie glared back. "If I hadn't shown up when I did, that old lady would have given you an aneurysm or worse!"

Caroline snorted. "Oh, please, I could take her." She whirled at Jo. "Who the hell was that old bitch anyway? And why's she suddenly the new wedding planner? I thought you asked me to run things when your old one cancelled?"

Bonnie and Jo shared a furtive glance. If memory served, what happened had less to do with _anyone_ asking Caroline – and more to do with Caroline showing up, seeing a vacancy – and putting herself in her favourite spot – in charge.

But now was not the time to split hairs.

"I explained to you about the Gemini being involved. Believe it or not, there was a lot of political manoeuvring that went on to get those girls in the ceremony. You just have to work around them, Caroline and… all the other changes."

"What other changes?" Caroline shrieked.

Jo waved her hand dismissively, panicking Caroline further. "Caroline, just roll with it, OK? Half of this stuff won't make sense to you anyway; if they want to change anything, let them. This ceremony is important for my father – and my brother." She glanced at Bonnie when she said the last.

Bonnie was suddenly grateful for the chair Caroline procured. She felt like if a thunderbolt had hit her. She had been so focused on throwing herself into Jo's wedding, a desperate effort to distract herself from everything that had been going on in her life recently that she had completely failed to realize what was now so stupidly obvious.

 _He_ was going to be here. How could he not be? It was his sister's wedding, a now-Gemini affair, of which he was leader. For the first time in the weeks since they returned from 1903, Bonnie was going to come face to face with Kai Parker.

In real life, at least. Because in her dreams – nightmares, he was _always_ there.

"It's your wedding, Jo," Caroline said furiously but Bonnie could barely hear her; her friends' voices, and the sounds of the hustle and bustle around them drowned out completely by the storm in her own head, by his voice – from memory, from nightmare – mocking her in her head.

 _"You and I are even now."_

 _"Do you think you could keep screwing people over and getting away with it?"_

 _"Believe me, I've changed…"_

 _"Your magic can't protect you from me."_

 _I LIED._

The last wasn't a memory of anything he said, but of what he left her on his pager, the LED symbols flashing mockingly at her as she woke up, soaked in her blood and completely alone.

Bonnie could almost smell wet iron, almost hear the roar of silence that had been her constant companion for five months. She felt sweat pouring out of her skin, and told herself to snap out of it, but the bottomless pit of weeks of suppressed emotions was suddenly yawning open, threatening to swallow her …

"Bonnie."

The impeding panic attack receded as abruptly as it started, and Bonnie stared up at Elena's worried face – and a whole crowd of people. Stefan Salvatore, his face stark, Caroline and Jo, their faces anxious, were all peering at her. Bonnie blushed, embarrassed, especially when Stefan's eyes seemed to blaze at her; then he looked away, mumbled something and walked off. Caroline turned to watch him go.

Elena gave him a worried glance, but her eyes went back to Bonnie.

"Are you all right?" she asked, her newly warm aura shimmering with concern.

Bonnie nodded, squeezed out a smile. "Of course."

"I told you she should have stayed in the hospital," Jo said, as if Bonnie hadn't spoken.

"It's not too late," Caroline said, staring at Bonnie with a glint in her eye.

Hastily, Bonnie burst out the bad news she had previously been dreading to deliver. "The floral contractor's truck broke down. They can't promise to deliver the flowers on time!"

The effect was instantaneous. Caroline let out a scream, then she yanked out her phone and started punching it like if she was loading bullets into a revolver. Jo threw up her arms in the air and cursed. Elena started firing out alternatives. Caroline shushed both of them, all but shoving them away to give her space. As if on cue, one of the contractors that had apparently been hovering near all this while, approached Jo and after a few words, she and Elena walked away with her.

Elena threw Bonnie back one more anxious glance which Bonnie returned with a big toothy smile – that vanished the moment Elena turned her back.

Caroline was good, Bonnie thought from her own vantage point in her chair. In a few minutes, she had come up with a Plan B.

"Great. We'll pick them in 5. Do _NOT_ screw up again or I will _END_ you."

She shut off the call. Bonnie jumped to her feet. "You need someone to get the flowers? I'll go."

Caroline frowned. "I was going to ask Matt to do it, and I don't think you're up to –"

"Up to what? Leaning against the truck and pointing while Matt carries the bouquet? You know you can't send him alone. He won't have a clue what he's supposed to bring along and there's no time for any more screw-ups."

Caroline hesitated. "I should probably ask Elena."

"Care."

Bonnie's sudden grave voice clearly startled Caroline. The two girls locked gazes.

"I _need_ to do something. Don't put me on timeout."

Caroline nodded slowly, understanding passing over her face. She of all people should get it. It was barely twenty-four hours that she had turned up from wherever she had been hiding out since her humanity came back, and Bonnie knew half of the reason that Caroline had thrown herself into organizing Jo's wedding wasn't just because she was a control freak.

It was in the moments of 'peace' that the demons inside shouted the loudest.

"OK," Caroline said with a sigh, then laughed when Bonnie hugged her. "One more thing, though." She fished out a small case from her purse. A groom's cravat. "Matt's over at Alaric's. Please make sure the blushing groom gets this. Apparently he forgot to pick it up yesterday."

Both girls sighed and rolled their eyes in tandem. _Men_.

"Make sure Matt toes the line. Er… also, don't tell Elena… She'll probably freak out if she finds out you've gone."

"Elena's probably doing a mini-rehearsal now with Liv Parker and the new bridesmaids."

"They're not bridesmaids," Caroline corrected dryly. "They are representations of the covenant between the coven and the _Regium_ , portals in human form for hocus pocus mumbo jumbo."

Both of them laughed, and Bonnie felt her heart lightening. "See you around, Care. Try not to kill anybody from Jo's coven."

"I make no promises," Caroline said darkly.

But Bonnie was already punching her phone for Matt's number, walking away rapidly, and telling herself that after getting the flowers with Matt, she had every intention of coming back for the ceremony, every intention of actually standing in the same space with Kai Parker and spending all of it wondering when he was going to try to kill her again.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Bonnie was in the kitchen, making a sandwich. One of the twins – Martha? Rachel? – was in her high chair, playing with a spoon. Bonnie had just fed her all by herself, which had gone on better than she had feared. Liv was having a shower. Damon had claimed he was going to have one – and disappeared just before the twin's meal – and reappeared just as conveniently after.

He was hunting for bourbon _again_ as Bonnie sliced and diced when her phone buzzed. She smiled when she saw who was calling. "Hi Matt."

"Hey, Bon. How are you? How did it go with the Gemini council?"

Bonnie sighed. She glanced at Damon who had found his bourbon, and was clearly listening in. He gave her a commiserating look as she told Matt an abbreviated version of events.

"They've got some nerve," he declared when she finished. "You almost killed yourself trying to save their asses that day!"

He seemed more outraged by the personal attacks on Bonnie's character, than on the lack of a firm commitment to help.

"Well, they didn't see it that way," she said.

Matt muttered something that sounded suspiciously obscene under his breath. "So… are you going to stick around to hear from them? There's no rush. Things are under control here…"

"We're coming back tomorrow."

"Good," he said, sounding very relieved.

"Aren't you disappointed we're coming back empty?"

"I'm happier you're coming back soon. Screw the Gemini. Half the time, we can't tell whether they're supposed to be the good guys or the bad guys. At least if you're back in Mystic Falls, I won't have to worry about anything happening to you over there."

Her heart warmed. "We'll be home tomorrow."

"Good." He paused. "Hope you're keeping Damon in line?"

She snorted and Damon said loudly, "I can hear you, Donovan!"

"I know," Matt retorted then his voice went softer. "Bonnie, I hope you're not letting what those freaks said get to you?"

Had she been so transparent? Bonnie wondered. "I'm not," she lied.

"Mmmm… Come home soon, OK?"

Damon threw her a funny look as she put away her phone. "Donovan's keeping tabs on you."

"He's right to be wary, I guess. It wasn't really that long when Liv and Luke tried to kill off Stefan and Elena."

Which was one more reason to loathe this life, of fluid alliances and shifting loyalties, where one moment you could be fighting side by side and the next moment, you could fighting to the death with the same person.

"Or that Caroline snapped Luke's neck," Damon continued as he grinned around his mug. "Now that I think about it, the poor guy was doomed from the start."

"Damon."

"How does the whole merge thing work, anyway? Is he rattling somewhere in Kai's head? Can they hold a conversation?"

"Damon."

"Though I guess, Kai's head was already so filled with crazy, one more voice won't have made a difference. But that's not why," he said, abruptly, "Donovan is keeping tabs."

"Damon!"

She finally broke through to him. He boggled his eyes at her "Wha-" then did a double take at Liv, standing at the kitchen door and staring.

"Oops," he deadpanned.

A tense moment followed. Liv's face was blank, but her hands shook slightly where they rested against her sides. Damon held his mug with two hands, in a protective-like gesture, and shrugged. "I'm sorry?" he offered, his eyebrows waggling.

Bonnie nearly threw her knife at him.

But it seemed to do the trick. Liv pushed past them to the girl in the high chair – who had apparently fallen asleep without anyone noticing. "Damon, the day I let you get under my skin, is the day hell freezes over," she whispered loudly as she gently freed the baby from her restraints. She gathered up her niece and left the kitchen without a backward glance.

Damon turned to Bonnie with an exaggerated look of relief. "Wow," he breathed dramatically. "For a moment there, I was-"

"Congratulations," Bonnie hissed. "You just achieved a new low on the insensitivity scale."

"Oh come on, BonBon. You heard the girl. She's moved past it."

"And you would know this from all the people in your life you've lost, and _moved past_?"

He gave her a pained look. "I've lost my fair share, Bonnie."

"Really?" she snapped. "Like whom exactly, Damon? _And it doesn't count if they came back_."

He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it, and shut it. "I think I'll go … stock up on diapers."

"You do that."

He shuffled off.

She turned back to her sandwich.

* * *

The twins were playing a new game – a 'take turns waking up and driving everyone batty' game. Barely a few moments after Bonnie finished her sandwich, a sharp cry emitted from the monitor.

She and Liv hurried to the nursery to retrieve the screaming child before she woke her sister. But it was already too late. The other girl was stirring when they left. And a few minutes later, Bonnie was struggling to pin down the wriggling, crying baby – Rachel or Martha, she really needed to know their names – while Liv fiddled with the diaper and tried to block the sound of the other twin's screams coming from the baby monitor.

"You're putting it the wrong way," Bonnie suggested.

"You want to do it yourself?"

"No."

"Then shut up!"

"It's upside down."

"Oh. Oh, I see."

The cries through the monitor increased in pitch.

"Where the hell is Damon?!" Liv screamed again.

Bonnie had no idea. But she knew this much – he was getting an aneurysm to end all aneurysms when he returned. She suspected the "stock up on diapers" was a ruse. They found the extra diapers – right where it made sense to have extra diapers, in the closet in the nursery. But by then, Damon had taken off and that was an hour ago.

"OK, I've got it. I've got you. Dear, dear, now. Auntie Liv's not completely useless," Liv said, now progressing from diaper to clothes. "I-I think I can manage now. Maybe you can check on Martha-"

Something like an internal bell rang inside Bonnie's head but before she could chase the meaning, the sound-activated monitor suddenly went silent.

Without the cries from the baby upstairs, the house felt deathly quiet.

Bonnie's heart stuttered. She stared at Liv over the baby between them. Liv had the same look on her face – more panic, than relief. Martha's sudden silence was more likely to be very bad, than very good.

Without a word, she was on her feet and half-way out the door and that when was the monitor came back on.

They could hear a baby cooing happily, then a lower, deeper-toned voice cooing back at it.

Her heart jumped and Bonnie took off. She thought she heard Liv shout something after her but she couldn't stop, panic rising in her as she rushed upstairs.

Half way there, she felt it or rather, she recognized it. That alarm that had rang in her head just before the baby stopped crying.

The realization almost sent her stumbling down the steps.

She got to the nursery, slowly, her feet dragging and she stopped at the closed door.

Her heart was pounding, she realized, and she swallowed hard against the lump that had risen in her throat.

Through the door, she could still hear him, talking softly to the baby, his voice so low it seemed to echo in her ribs. She froze where she stood, her hands pressed flat against the door as she braced herself against the two equally powerful urges that were ripping through her: the urge to flee, turn around and keep running until the space of the world was between her and that voice; and the urge to fling open this door and run _towards_ it.

She did neither. Just stood there for as long as it took her to take a deep breath and count down from ten.

Then she pushed the door open.

He stood by the window with the baby over his shoulder. Martha lifted her head, the baby's eyes shining serenely.

Then he turned. And there was nowhere to look. Their eyes caught and Bonnie's chest clenched.

The last time she had seen him was a year ago, after the ordeal of Josette's wedding. All this while, she thought she'd never be able to forget his face – the deep-set, steely grey eyes, the sharp jaw, the mouth that could be both wickedly cruel and dangerously persuasive – in so many ways. But memory was nothing compared to reality. And reality was tall and broad and a powerful, _punishing_ stare that stripped her bare. Reality was a man whose presence was the torch that could still enflame her with fury and grief and regret and ….

 _No. No. No._

She shut those thoughts down completely.

"Hello, Bonnie," he said, and at the sound of his voice, soft and low, her flesh broke out in goose-bumps again.

She swallowed. Twice. She had to before she could get the word past her throat.

"Kai."

* * *

 **A/N** : Evil cliff-hanger! Do you like the flashbacks? Or are they too distracting? Thank you so much to my 2 betas thenameismaynard and magicsuckcr! You guys are the greatest!

And thanks so much to everyone who reviewed and left comments. I love getting reviews. I'm happy to get both praise and criticism because it all works towards improving the story - letting me know what's good, and what I should keep at and what's bad and I need to work on. Please keep them coming. And please, please, please keep the BonKai flag flying!


	3. 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

* * *

 _April 2013_

 _"Sangima Maerma, Bernos Asescenda."_

One hand on her torn side, the other tangled up with Kai's around the Ascendant, she sang the words of the incantation and watched the colours of the Borealis mingle with the red blood in the snow.

She was bleeding, and she was probably dying, the only thing keeping her upright was his arm around her, his body supporting her. He fared barely better. The revival spell she had done on him an hour ago was wearing off and she could feel, from where her cheek rested on his chest, that his heart was slowing.

But all these registered absent-mindedly in her head. Even the bodies littered in a half-circle around her, stirring slightly, barely got her attention.

 _"Sangima Maerma, Bernos Asescenda."_

She was lost in the magic, in the mingling of their auras as they channelled each other, pouring everything they could into the spell. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. The strands of their individual magic seemed to knot into a tight rope that tugged at something deep, down inside her.

She felt like if her soul was filling, stretching, like skin tight enough to rupture. Did he feel this too? She wondered, even as the lights changed over her head. Even as she could see, vaguely, noting with academic interest, that two of the figures around them were rising.

The question was still echoing in her head, as the colours around blended into white. Their bodies were falling upwards, into the white.

They were Ascending.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Did he feel it too? Bonnie thought now, staring at Kai Parker from across the room. That pain like knives through one's heart, like if she had fallen into a pit of spikes that had shredded her soul into so many pieces that no matter how she tried, she could never quite put herself back the way she was?

 _All the King's men and all the King's horses…_

The air between them seemed electrified, crackling with all the bad memories and bad blood they shared.

The urge to run – to him or away – had not left her and she just leaned against the wall, paralyzed and dizzy, torn between the two overwhelming impulses.

He had looked almost peaceful, the short moment she had watched him unobserved. But now he too leaned against the wall by the window, the child's head on his shoulder, and there was a storm of feeling in his eyes.

Then Liv touched Bonnie's shoulder and Bonnie jumped.

"Oh, thank god you're here," Liv was saying. "Bonnie, I was trying to tell you not to worry. He usually pops over during the week."

Kai turned his gaze from Bonnie to shake his head slowly at his sister. He turned a little so that she could see that the baby's eyes were almost shutting. His face softened as well.

Something inside Bonnie seemed to break a little.

Liv gave him a huge grin and two thumbs up. Then hooking her arm through Bonnie's, she half-led, half-dragged Bonnie out of the room.

Bonnie could feel his eyes follow her as she left.

* * *

Martha – or Rachel – was in the playpen, knocking against the bars with a wooden spoon. Bonnie kept an eye on her – or rather stared in her general direction while she tried to control the wild thoughts running through her head.

 _He's here._

Her heart had stopped pounding at least. She had got that much under control.

"I ordered pizza. I'm going to call for an extra box now that Kai is around."

Bonnie was sitting on the counter, with a clear view of the living area and the baby's playpen. Liv was flitting through the kitchen, preparing the baby's meal.

"Not that I mind," Liv continued. "He can have all the pizza. He's great with them."

"With the pizza?" Bonnie asked, her mind completely scattered.

 _Kai._

 _Kai is here._

Liv gave her a sceptical look. "With the twins? Duh. They just love him. It's not really surprising when you think about it. He and Jo did spend more time with us than our parents did, what with running the coven. There's this old lady that sits for the twins. She knew us from way back and she told me once that our mom would pop out a baby then hand it over to Jo and Kai right in the delivery room. Gross."

Maybe that's why he killed half of his siblings, Bonnie thought hysterically. He got tired of diaper duty.

"What's up with you?"

"What?" Bonnie asked, coming out of her thoughts to see Liv looking at her crossly.

"You're all spaced out. You're not doing drugs or anything, are you?"

Bonnie burst out into incredulous laughter. "What?"

"I'm not one to judge but you're on baby duty right now so no chemicals. Not even the juju stuff."

"Juju stuff? I'm guessing you have a stash then," Bonnie said wryly, only half joking. Right now, anything to switch off her brain sounded great.

Especially as in the next moment, she felt the back of her neck burn.

She knew. She knew without turning that he was right behind her.

"Everyone keeps a stash. Raid Jo's before you go. She has the best stuff."

His deep voice was mocking. Bonnie stared fixedly at the baby in front of her, and worked on her breathing. The heart that she had just got under control was beating rapidly again.

"Want some pizza, Kai?" Liv asked.

"Don't you ever eat proper food here?"

"Actually we had a whole home-cooked dinner last night. Too bad you weren't invited," Liv said sweetly as she walked around the island and into the living room, baby bottle and napkin in hand.

"Not if it was your cooking," he drawled.

Liv just snorted, as she picked up the baby and, cooing, walked to the high chair in the far corner.

The silence between the two in the kitchen stretched out painfully.

Bonnie fidgeted in her seat, feeling his gaze all but branding her neck. She sighed with relief, when she felt it lift. She heard him moving around the kitchen, then he was on the phone with the pizza place. His voice was low, barely audible but she felt every cadence on her skin.

She snuck a quick glance at her distorted reflection on the smooth shiny surface of one of the appliances on the counter. Loose strands had escaped from her once-neat bun. She smoothed her hair quickly, then frowned at her outfit. There was nothing she could do about her scruffy jeans and faded old T-shirt.

A moment later, she almost groaned at her silliness.

The call was ending soon. She clenched her fists tightly in her lap and took a deep breath. She turned to face him just as he was hanging up the phone.

Kai was already waiting for her, his grey eyes locking into her face at once.

He looked older, Bonnie thought, forcing herself to study him. A while ago when she saw him carrying his niece, his features had been relaxed, almost peaceful – well as peaceful as they could be in the circumstance. Now she could see that his face had grown stern, his jaw harder. There were lines at the corner of his eyes and mouth that were begging for someone's fingers to reach over and smoothen them out. The strands of white hair that had sprung up that night, now stood in stark relief to his otherwise thick, dark hair. She couldn't see the top of his head from where she sat, but she knew that the white streaked in a zig-zag pattern across his head.

She looked away. That was enough. That was all that she could bear.

"It's good to see you again, Bonnie," he said softly.

She shivered at the sound of her name in his voice. She had to clear her throat before she could speak. "You, too."

Despite everything, that was the truth.

"Of course, the circumstances could have been better," he added, wryly.

She grabbed the opening with both hands. "Did Jo call you? Or did the" – despite herself, she made a face – "council give you their recommendation?"

"Yes, and yes. You really shouldn't have lost your temper."

She let out her breath in a sharp hiss. "Why does everybody keep saying that?" she growled.

Kai snorted. "Because it's true."

"But it's up to you, right? You have the final say on this."

His face was instantly grave again. He nodded.

"So?" She pressed at once. "Are you going to help us?"

He walked towards her, and she leaned back, instinctively. He stopped, staring at her, and she felt the colour rise in her face.

"Sorry," she muttered.

Kai shrugged, grabbed the stool across the counter from her and sat, his arms folded over each other, and resting on the table. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows and she could see the muscles rippling beneath veined skin, and the dark hairs coating it. His arms were bulkier than she remembered. She recalled how they looked upstairs, when he was easily walking with his niece against his chest.

She had a clear view of his hands, the trademark black wristband and the rings on his fingers. Sometime in the past year, he had replaced the three that he had used up and acquired one more.

She hated that she could tell.

She caught her hands twitching. Blushing, she pulled them into her lap, locking her fingers together.

He gave her an indecipherable look, then shifted his gaze, skidding past her face to rest somewhere just beside her left ear.

For a moment, neither of them said a word.

He spoke first. "What's going on in Mystic Falls?"

She looked from his hands to his face in surprise. "You just said-"

"Yes, I got a full report from the council. And Jo told me what she knew. I even spoke to Alaric and got the version he had from Damon Salvatore. I've read the newspapers and the police reports, too."

Her eyebrows went up. "All in one day?" She was impressed, despite herself.

Was she imagining it or did the tips of his ears go slightly pink?

But when he spoke, his voice was clinical. "The Gemini have been aware of the goings-on in your town for some time. What I want now is your version of events."

She swallowed, suddenly nervous. She felt like if she was back in that hall, facing the council. "OK."

"When did the heretics first appear?"

"A month ago yesterday. They were first spotted near Fell's Church. Their first few sightings, they wore odd clothes – I guess whatever get-up they had while they were in 1903. Damon and Stefan thought they were just a pair of old-time vampires coming out of hibernation. That was enough reason for them to worry."

Damon's first call had come towards the end of the Spring semester, a few days after Bonnie changed her term paper assignment at the last possible minute. She could still vividly remember walking triumphantly out of the professor's office, then seeing the name _Damon Salvatore_ flash on her screen and pressing the ignore button at once. The calls kept coming, as well as messages from him and his brother and she had kept ignoring them.

A year ago, she had vowed to herself to stay away from the Salvatores, Mystic Falls and supernatural power plays in general; and she had been pleased with herself at how long she had kept that promise.

Now she'd always wonder: if she had picked that first call, maybe April Young and Ronnie Marten would still be alive.

"It took a few kills to figure out what they were, what we were up against. They moved into an abandoned mansion somewhere on the upper-scale side of town, and barricaded it with wards. I've never been able to pinpoint its exact location. They come out once in a while to hunt and feed." She grimaced. "You can be sure if you see one of them lurking around, dead bodies will soon crop up. And they're hard to miss. They dress pretty normally now but a pair of white, creepy ginger-heads stand out anywhere." He made a sudden movement. She bit her lip, then continued. "I-I recognized the man myself, from the battle and earlier from when I was attacked at your apartment. I don't think I've ever met the woman before."

That sudden movement – he had betrayed something. "D-do you recognize them?" she asked softly, hating herself even as she did so.

One of his hands clenched. "I guess you're asking if I recognized any of my hosts from the scintillating time I spent enjoying their 1903 hospitality?" he asked and his voice was like ice.

Bonnie closed her eyes, inhaled, and opened them. "Yes," she whispered.

"Tell me about the first attack."

He hadn't answered her question and she didn't have the nerve to ask it again.

"A pair of high school seniors. One of them was a mundane girl called April Young. I-I knew her, growing up. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She and her boyfriend Ronnie were walking home from a game. She was a cheerleader; and he played in the rival school's team."

Bonnie had been in the library, finishing up a term paper when the headline had flashed via a pop-up on her console. She didn't even remember turning in that paper or the grade it got her. What she did remember was the nausea that had had hit her reading April's obituary. Then again during the phone conversation with Matt later.

She had driven to Mystic Falls that evening.

"The town's been relatively safe since the start of the year. This was the first supernatural incident and nobody expected it. Their bodies were found after searching for two days. They were drained of blood."

"And you knew this was your heretics and not anyone from your friendly neighbourhood nest of vampires because…?"

She ignored the barb. "Whoever drained these kids of blood, also drained them of their essence. They had siphoned their auras for magic. The bodies that were found were aged. It was clothes, then dental records that identified them."

He nodded. "That's their M.O., alright. Magic isn't just in supernaturals like witches, or vampires or werewolves or banshees or any the other freaks. Everything alive has magic, including mundanes. That's why we can channel them, if we have to. But it's wrapped up in life and blood. So the heretics take everything when they feed. It's not very efficient though. Better to feed from a vampire, or a werewolf. But the best thing, the real _piece de resistance_ , is a full-bodied witch. Blood. Power. Magic. Like a triple layer burger. Take a bite from all three at once. Or you can peel the layers apart, pick and choose. Breakfast on blood. Power for lunchtime. A supper of magic. If you're smart and not too greedy, you give your snack enough time between feedings to grow strong enough but not too strong. Just enough for that next juicy bite."

His eyes were filled with a stark faraway look.

"Kai," she whispered, her heart pounding. Unconsciously, her hands had reached out towards him on the table.

He didn't hear her. "And you have to be careful because you have to break him, not too much or he won't last long but enough so you don't lose him. Sort of like a farm animal. You do it right and you can keep him alive for a long time. Feed a whole coven of heretics with just the one witch."

Goosebumps were crawling over her flesh. She was almost choking with horror.

"Kai… _Please_."

He came to, with a start. Something passed over his face, too quickly for her to read. Then the shutters fell.

"Did they keep going after mundanes?" he asked brusquely.

But her emotions were still too raw. Her heart hadn't stopped pounding. Her eyes stung. She looked away and kept blinking furiously until they stopped.

He had to ask the question again before she could even understand it.

"Rarely," she whispered, still staring down, forcing herself to stay on topic. "They have a clear preference for supernatural beings. After April, they took out two wizards, a couple of senior citizens that moved to town last year. Gabriel and Victor Briggs. A bunch of vampire co-eds living in a Whitmore dorm. Then there was a party at the Lockwood manor where they attacked. They killed two men and one woman with the werewolf gene. Two were relatives of Tyler Lockwood that just popped over the weekend for this shindig. One of the men was a fellow cadet from the Academy. Wrong place. Wrong time. Probably didn't even know what he was. A week later, we lost one of our vampires when we tried to trap them. Next day, there was a massacre at a bank, all human casualties. That was the only time they attacked humans in Mystic Falls since April Young. It was around that time that we started fighting with vervain. It seems to have worked … for the moment."

"We?"

"Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Matt, Tyler and I."

"Scooby Gang in action. Finding solutions to problems they create in three episodes or less."

She glared at him for that and he glared right back.

The lights in the room flickered.

"Hey, guys!"

Bonnie almost jumped out of her skin at Liv's loud whisper. She turned to see the blonde girl, standing with the baby in her arms, and a look on her face that said she clearly wished she was anywhere but here.

"Baby's sleeping. I'll just… go away for a while, OK?"

Bonnie nodded, tried to smile reassuringly at her but knew it probably came out as a wince.

Liv paused at the door, then said over her shoulder. "Try not to kill each other in Jo's kitchen. It's baby-proof and vampire-proof, but not witchy woo murder-proof."

Kai snorted. She smirked back and left.

Liv's words had done something to him. She could see the tension slipping out from his shoulders as he pushed away from the counter and walked to the fridge. "I need a drink. Want one?"

She shook her head, then realized he couldn't see that. "No. Baby watch, remember?"

He snickered. "That never stopped Alaric. Or, for that matter, Jo." But he only brought out one can. He took a swig from it, still standing by the fridge.

Bonnie watched the play of muscles under his shirt when he did, remembered how they felt under his skin.

Her fingers spasmed again and she stared down at them in surprise. She hadn't realized when she placed them on the table, but they were there now. Her arms were outstretched as if she had been trying to reach for something.

Or someone.

She pulled her hands back to her, clasped them together. Then she changed her mind, and wrapped them around her body.

Kai took another swig before he came back to the counter.

Sitting across from him now, both of them with drinks at hand, she was suddenly reminded of a year ago, meeting with him like this. She could almost still smell the coffee in that café. She had been so tense, ready to fight or fly, as she watched him warily, barely touching her glass of water. He, on the other hand, ate through his meal like if he didn't have a care in the world, his face alternating between mirth and gravity with his characteristic and uncanny unpredictability.

Despite what Damon had said, Bonnie hadn't really believed that he would help them without demanding some hefty price in exchange. His 'fee' had caught her off-guard.

 _"Come on, it'll be fun."_

Staring at him now, she had a clear view of the sharp emotion that flashed across his face and she knew that he, too, was remembering that day. He shifted sideways on the stool so he was now staring out the window and his face was partially in profile to her.

She wondered if it was as disturbingly painful for him to look at her as it was for her to look at him.

"Your heretic problem. I'm guessing you must have tried a few tricks before you came here cap in hand?" He asked now.

Once again, Bonnie ignored the blatant attempt to get a rise from her. "We've tried everything. The usual stake and fire. Spells from any Grimoires we got hold of. Gilbert devices. And, of course, that's only when we manage to get close enough to attack. But we keep fighting them with magic and that just makes them stronger. I triangulated their mansion once, and Tyler got the idea to booby-trap it with dynamite."

Kai looked impressed. "Obviously, it didn't work."

"We lost Enzo that night. A few days later, they attacked a bank downtown, and dropped his body with the rest of the corpses." She felt cold just remembering. "It was a message. They didn't feed from the humans. Just sealed them in the bank and torched it."

Did she imagine the sudden anger that crossed his face, so quickly that she only barely caught it?

She must have because he just asked curiously. "Enzo who?"

"One of our own. An old friend of Damon's."

"And an old friend of Damon's mother." He added. He noticed her surprise because he elaborated. "I remember him now. He was the vampire you said you lost?" he asked, concluding correctly.

Bonnie nodded.

He glanced at her quickly, then away. "What about you? Any up close and personal encounters? Anyone tried for that yummy Bennett essence?"

She shuddered. It was over a year, but she still had vivid memories of that second nightmare visit to 1903. "I've been lucky. We've all been lucky, and smart. We knew they were hard to kill. Just how hard, we didn't realize at first. But we always knew enough to always attack as a group. Enzo… fell behind."

"So they've never tried to siphon _you_?"

She looked at him suspiciously. There was an undertone of persistence beneath the deceptive casualness of his question.

"No," she answered, wondering what he was leading to.

But he said nothing further, just kept staring away from her.

After a moment of waiting, she shrugged and went on. "The only thing that works is vervain. It seems to have the same effect on them as it does with ordinary vampires – it weakens them. So we started putting it everywhere – in the water, planted it in parks, on lawns, layered branches over fences and walls. Matt had this brilliant idea of mixing the powder with house paint. That really helped."

"Vervain drowns their vampire auras and they draw their magic from their vampirism."

"Yes, that's what we realised. They've stopped haunting the town. Now they go further upstate for prey. We've read the reports: it fits their profile. A few mundanes. Extremely aged in death. But more often, someone with a werewolf gene or someone who was clearly a vampire or probably some other supernatural human or creature, but clearly not a mundane. If we can keep this up for the next few months, maybe we can even drive them out of the town completely. I don't know why they keep coming back. But eventually they have to go. I just don't know how long it will take or who else will die before that happens."

The can was half way up Kai's mouth as she was speaking. Now he placed it back on the table without drinking. "Drive them," he said slowly. "Where?"

Bonnie shifted uneasily. "Anywhere. Out of Virginia, we hope but I'd settle for outside the Greater Falls-Whitmore area."

"And then what happens? They become someone else's problem? Another town, this one without a Founders's Council? As incompetent as yours is, at least you have a system for handling rogue supernatural elements. What do you think will happen when the heretics go somewhere they can have a free for all?"

She was acutely aware that it wasn't a fully thought out plan but – considering everything – his question rankled, and she threw it back at him. "Maybe by that time, you Gemini might actually get off your asses and do something about it?"

He turned then, looked her full in the face. His expression was incredulous. "You seem to think this is our problem."

"Isn't it _yours_?"

His lips thinned. "Is that your angle then?"

There was a challenge in his gaze. And for a moment, she glared back at him, ready to get into it with him there and then.

Then the moment passed, and she backed down. She wasn't going down that road with him.

Not again.

"What I meant was," she asked, willing herself to speak calmly, "aren't you Gemini supposed to be some sort of," she struggled to remember Damon's words, "'supernatural police'? When the travellers were in Mystic Falls, it was the Gemini's problem, wasn't it? Your coven locked up the heretics before. Can't you do it again?"

"When the Ascendants were destroyed," he reminded her, "the empty Prison Worlds were destroyed as well."

"Surely, there are other Prison Worlds in existence."

"There's a reason why their existence is shrouded in secrecy, even from one Praetor to the next. Maybe you didn't get the memo, but I for one learnt my lesson the hard way about locking people up in prison worlds they don't belong to."

If his words were meant to make her flinch, then he succeeded. His eyes seemed to burn into her face, watching her every cringe. But her guilt was also spiked with fury.

How dare he put this all on her?

"Fine," she snarled. "Make a new one then."

"Yes, please add that to your online Gemini shopping cart," he said, his voice soft and furious. "Item: Alternate dimension. Quantity: one. Size: the Earth. We don't make them _en masse_ , Bonnie. And considering the jailbreak rate in the past century is currently at one hundred per cent, the Council believes they are a waste of time and magical energy. I agree."

His sarcasm made her burn. She gripped her glass fiercely and barely restrained herself from hurling its contents in his face.

Barely restrained _herself_ from hurling at him and scratching his eyes out.

She must have shown some of her anger in her face because his gaze turned wary. "Have you tried other means of solving your problem?" he asked, a tad more courteously.

"I just told you-"

"I mean non-violent means. Talking to them, reaching some sort of understanding? Striking a deal?"

Bonnie stared. "You are joking, right? They murdered two kids the first day they showed up in town."

He boggled his eyes mockingly. "And this is a problem for… whom exactly? Last time I checked, none of your Scooby Gang had their hands clean. Do you really want to play the 'who has the longest rap sheet' game with your track record?"

"I've never killed an _innocent_ ," she said sharply. "Everyone I've gone after deserved it," she added, meaningfully. " _Everyone_."

A muscle in his jaw ticked.

"You're right, Bonnie. You're perfect. Not a black mark in your book. You only just enable the murderers in your inner circle."

"How dare-"

His voice rose. " _Oh Caroline, you ate half the freshman class when you turned off your humanity switch. But that's OK, you lost your mom_." His mimicry of her inflection was irritatingly uncanny.

Her face burned.

" _Oh Damon, you murdered your unborn niece and both her parents. But that's OK, nothing says 'I'm sorry' like blueberry fucking pancakes_."

"Shut up!" She screamed.

He did. Took a gulp of beer and banged the can on the table loudly.

Her eyes were stinging again and she blinked rapidly. "Who are you to sit in judgement over anybody?" she hissed.

"The leader of the Gemini coven. You came to me, remember?"

"I did. So tell me how to kill these monsters and we never have to speak to each other again."

The sound of metal crumpling drew her eyes to his hand. He had squashed the can in his fist. The muscle in his jaw was ticking so rapidly now it was practically telling time.

Overhead, the lights were flickering again.

He stood abruptly, walked quickly to the window.

It probably took a full minute but the lights finally stopped blinking.

"It doesn't matter if you know the spell," he said at last, so low, she almost missed it.

She nearly screamed in frustration. "Just tell me."

"It won't make any difference, Bonnie! You can't kill them even if you knew how. You aren't built for it."

She laughed, short and bitter. "You'll be surprised at what I can handle."

"I've seen what you can handle, remember?" he said lowly.

Bonnie inhaled sharply. It was a simple enough question but it sent her reeling. She stared at his back with her heart thudding.

"Or have you forgotten the cost?"

Maybe she had. There were a lot of things she had forced herself to forget – and for good reasons.

Although there were other things she simply couldn't remember because _she hadn't been there._

Not for the first time, the old anger rose up in her:

He had no right taking her out of that fight.

She jumped off from her seat and walked over to Kai in sharp, angry steps. He turned as she came close, and stared warily at her hands which were balled into fists at her sides.

"You're taking it out on them, aren't you?" She whispered, fiercely. The thought formed almost as she asked it.

"What are you saying, Bonnie?" he asked, and there was a warning in his voice.

 _Don't go there. Don't you dare._

She dared. "Not helping my town. Letting them rot at the hands of these heretics. You knew for a month and you did nothing. So much for you _changing_. So much for us being even," she scoffed. "You're punishing me. This is you teaching me a lesson, isn't it?"

He scoffed, shook his head, tried to turn away. "This is me having a better understanding than you what is at stake since you clearly have an inflated opinion of y-"

She rushed around him, put herself between him and the window. "Isn't it, Kai?" she all but yelled, getting as close to him as possible.

He glared down at her. Then he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against the window in a sudden movement that left her breathless.

"You listen to me, Bonnie Bennett." His face was so near that his breath washed over hers. She could taste the alcohol in it. "I am the Praetor Magus of the Gemini and that means I literally hold the life of every single witch, wizard, and child of my coven in my hands. Whatever I decide to do is going to be in the best interest of my people. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Absent-mindedly, she noticed that the lights were flickering again.

Her heart was pounding again, and her lungs were not working properly, she felt breathless, almost dizzy. But she lifted her chin and looked at him squarely. Her mouth twisted into a sarcastic smile. "Yeah. Right."

His rings dug into her skin as his grip tightened, painfully and he stepped closer. She could practically feel his words on her face. "I don't put my personal interests before the interests of my coven anymore, Bonnie. I learnt that lesson the hard way."

 _I'll go if you go._

They were breathing heavily now, their eyes boring into each other. His gaze dropped lower, to her mouth. Instinctively, she licked her lips and he swallowed, his Adam's apple jumping in his throat. Her own gaze went to the crow's feet she had noticed before and she felt her hand start rising up to smoothen them.

Bonnie yanked herself out of his grip.

Kai's arms stayed in position for a few moments, his hands clutching the empty air, then he lowered them slowly.

He turned to face her and they stared at each other, both still breathing heavily.

"So you're not going to help us?" she asked finally, and even in her own ears, it sounded more like a plea than a dare.

Shutters fell over his face.

"What do you think, Bonnie?"

She nodded softly, more to herself than him. Then she turned her face away because she couldn't bear to look at him. Then turned back because she couldn't bear not to.

His eyes were stormy, his face riddled with more emotions than she wanted to understand.

There were about a hundred things she wanted to say to him.

She walked around him and out of the room.

It took almost half an hour before the lights stopped flickering.

* * *

 _April 2013_

She was swimming in an ocean of magic, silver eddies floating over her head as she felt more than she heard the echo of spells. A familiar face, pale-skinned, and dark-haired seemed to peer through the shadows at her – and she felt her heart swell with fear, then she was sinking further into the depths.

She came to slowly, her mind breaking out of her swirling dreams like a diver resurfacing. Her eyes blinked slowly up at the familiar ceiling above, then she turned her head carefully to take in the yellow window curtains, the matching furniture, and her jacket, and winter outercoats on the floor.

The Salvatore's boarding house. She was lying on her bed, in what had been her room during her stay in 1994.

Was she back there? She sat up at once, and felt dizzy. Her heart was already jumping, panicking, when she heard voices from the door.

She turned to see his tall figure, half-blocking the doorway. From around his broad shoulders, she could make out a familiar female figure – dark hair, white jacket.

Dr. Jo Laughlin.

Josette Parker.

"-needs rest. Magic and medicine can only do so much. And come to the hospital. You need a transfusion, Kai."

"If I can stand and walk…"

"You're going to drop to the floor the moment I close this door."

"I forgot how good you are at this, Jo. The concerned doctor slash sister act. Impressive. If I didn't know better, I'd think you actually gave a damn about me."

"Kai-"

"I'd give you a hefty tip but I think my wallet's somewhere in the turn of the last century. Thanks so much for coming. Bye!"

She was still talking when he slammed the door in her face.

He paused a moment, then he fell to the floor like a ninepin.

Tentatively, Bonnie reached for her magic and felt it, weak and rattled underneath her skin. And, she realized with a mix of relief and regret, it was just her own. She had used up the last of her Expression magic.

Pushing back that thought for another time, she scanned the room for a weapon, or anything that could improvise for one.

"You know, I can practically hear you thinking of a way to attack me?" She started at Kai's voice.

He was still sitting on the floor in front of her, leaning on her footboard, but he had turned his head to stare up at her.

"You have to make up your mind what you want to do with me: slay me or save me? Because if it's the former, you botched your plan. Unless," he made a face, "you brought me back to finish the job yourself. Is this a case of 'no one can kill me but you' because that's kinda hot."

He looked marginally better than he had a few minutes – or hours? or days? She had no idea how much time had passed between leaving the prison world and now – ago. The puncture wounds on his neck had closed, and the paper-white complexion had filled with a _bit_ of colour. He was still pale though, she thought. Dr. Laughlin was right. He needed blood.

Wincing, he pulled himself to his knees, then dragged himself to sit on the foot of her bed. She skidded all the way to the headboard, clutching the blanket with one hand and her magic with the other.

He noticed.

"I'm really flattered but right now, I can't endanger a mouse," he said bitterly, and grimaced.

Bonnie hoped he was in considerable pain.

"How long have we been back? Where is Damon? Elena?" she fired him with questions.

"A few hours. Good question. Where are they, Bonnie? I distinctly remember you threatening me with the fact that your vamp pals were waiting for you on this side, ready to rip out my throat if I pulled a Crocodile Bondee on you." He snickered darkly. "Get it?"

She glared at him stonily, determined not to even blink at being caught in her bluff, or to let her disappointment show.

Because of some convoluted reasons involving Elena and the Cure, Damon had wanted Bonnie to bring back Lily's 'family' as well – a task that Bonnie had been against long before she understood just what that 'family' was. She had kept him out of her plans, leaving only a message at the very last minute before she went into the 1994 Prison, asking that he come to the Salvatore House to wait out her return. She had been hoping that despite their disagreement, he'd have her back.

Clearly, she had underestimated how disappointed, furious even, Damon had been over Bonnie refusing to help Lily.

Kai's glare had narrowed, turned shrewd and she broke, and looked away.

To her surprise, he didn't crow. "Whatever," he said brusquely. "This place was empty when we got back. I barely managed to lug you up here and call Jo. Turns out that apart from her mad medical skills, the good doctor also carries along a vial of vamp blood for emergencies. That's why you're not swimming in your own blood, by the way."

Bonnie touched her side, the memory of canines tearing into her body flashed through her brain. She lifted her blouse and touched the skin. It was unblemished. There was no sign of her ordeal. Even the blood that must have dried there had been cleaned away.

She glanced at him then and caught his eyes fixed on the patch of skin she had revealed, his mouth gaping slight, his face twisted into an expression she could only describe as yearning.

He saw her staring at him, and looked away, the tips of his ears reddening.

"You're welcome," he muttered.

"For what?" She snapped. "Asking Jo to fix me after I got bitten and siphoned saving your life? If anyone should be groveling with thanks, it's you."

His eyes snapped back at her, and she recoiled at the sudden fury in them. "I'd prostrate myself on the floor and crawl on my belly right now but I'm a little weak from being used as a blood bag for six weeks. If only I could remember how that happened." He scrunched his brow in pretend-confusion and then gasped dramatically, his eyes mockingly wide. "Oh wait, I remember! I was stuck in a prison world because you stabbed me and left me there to die!" He snarled the last sentence.

"Now doesn't that sound familiar?" It was Bonnie's turn to be sarcastic. "Because I remember you doing the _exact same thing_ to me."

"So you wanted to punish me? Bit out of proportion, don't you think? I left you by yourself. You left me to be food to a bunch of monsters. It's not my fault that you broke after five months and tried to kill yourself. I was in that prison for _eighteen years_ , Bonnie! You planned on doing the same thing to me. The only difference was I got out first. So stop acting like you're some kind of innocent victim!"

Bonnie lifted a hand and threw her magic at him. He caught it, threw it at the window and the glass shattered beneath it.

Then before she could summon another hex, he had leaned over and grabbed her wrists, holding them painfully in its grip.

"Let go of me!" she shouted.

"Use your magic against me, Bonster and I'll bleed it out of you."

She sneered. "So I'm the monster, Kai? Can you hear yourself? I did bleed for you today. I almost died getting you back!"

"Why? Because you felt guilty? Because you cared so much? Puh-leeze. You did it for Jo and the coven or I'd still be there, being passed around like a bowl of soup."

"You deserve worse! At least, I came back for you. Which was more than you ever did for me."

He laughed in her face, his eyes completely mad. "Semantics. I almost died trying to bring you back after stranding you there. You nearly died trying to bring me back after leaving me there. We're even, Bonster," and he said it like a threat. "All debts settled. All bets off."

" _Even_? I never owed you anything!" she snarled, struggling against his grip. "What the hell did you ever do for me but hurt me, and trick me, and abandon me?"

"Your birthday, Bonnie," he said through gritted teeth.

"What about my birthday?"

"Myself. Almost dying. Saving your life!"

She stopped struggling then to look at him, at the look of fury and hurt on his face. "What. the. hell. are you talking about, Kai?"

Impossibly, his face seemed to get angrier. For a heart-stopping moment, she thought he would siphon her. Then he froze, the anger melting away into confusion. Then shock. Then dawning realization.

He sat back, and her hands slipped out of his.

She pulled them to her chest at once, twisting them into the blanket that she wrapped protectively around her body.

"You… don't know?" he asked, slowly.

"Know what?" she said, trying to bite out the words but they only came out as confused as his did.

"Your birthday. When you tried to kill yourself. Didn't Damon or Elena or Jeremy Gilbert tell you what happened? What I…" he swallowed. "Didn't anyone tell you what I did?" he asked, very quietly.

"What did you do?"

He stared. "They didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"The spell. Jeremy Gilbert and I came to you. I tried sending everybody but it was too much. With him alone, we could just barely interact physically with your world. But boy, did that take major juice out of me. Then," he suddenly snorted, "to make things even more interesting, my baby sister ran a poker through me. There I am, bleeding all over Damon's kitchen, wondering how I survived the merge ceremony to be gutted by Livvie poo of all people. But I keep at the spell because you, Bonnie Bennett are five seconds away from carbon monoxide poisoning. Which is not a bad way to go, all things considered. I should know. I've tried them all." His smile was broken.

Something cold was filling Bonnie, her lungs, her pores. She felt like if she had been sleeping, and someone had grabbed her, thrown her into the deep end of the pool and now she was drowning.

"Jeremy Gilbert got to you in time to open the garage door."

She dragged herself out of the bed, almost stumbling onto the floor. He half-stood, trying to reach for her but she dodged his reach, limping backwards and away from him, needing to put as much distance between both of them as possible.

He was lying. He had to be lying.

She swallowed past the lump that was forming in her throat and told him that. "Stop lying."

"The map opened to Nova Scotia on the kitchen floor? Right where you needed it to be to get the idea to go for your ancestor's magic? How do you think that happened?"

"I thought – the wind… somehow…"

"The garage door that opened just in time to save your life? Did the wind do that too? That must have been some genius wind."

 _How had that garage door opened?_

Bonnie had asked herself that question once, not too long ago; but this was not the answer she had expected. Or wanted.

"You're lying."

He shook his head, laughed bitterly. "Why would I lie? How _can_ I lie about this?"

"To manipulate me. To get into my head."

"Ask Damon or Elena what happened that day. Ask Jeremy Gilbert, your boyfriend."

His voice snagged on the last word but Bonnie barely noticed. Too many thoughts were going through her head.

Damon had written the notes to Nova Scotia on the map. She had thanked him for them. He hadn't mentioned Kai. Or Jeremy. Between Caroline's and Stefan's humanity crisis and getting Lily out, she and Elena hadn't even talked about her time in the prison world.

And as for Jeremy - Bonnie hadn't had a proper conversation with Jeremy since she got back. They kept missing each other on the phone. Or in all fairness, _she_ kept missing him, deliberately. What could she say to him? She didn't know who she was anymore, had stopped knowing for many months now. She needed to figure herself out before she could figure out who she was or could be to anyone else.

Kai was still talking. "It was your birthday. They were throwing a party." He laughed at that.

She hadn't known that. Why hadn't she been told that?

"I needed to send a note to Jo. I asked Elena. She asked for a favour. Damon wanted me to send a message to you. A trade. It was your birthday, he said, and he didn't even know if you knew."

"I did," Bonnie whispered, hoarsely, the memory of the pain of that returning.

A pressure in her head was building, threatening to burst out of her. She hurt. In her head. In her bones. Everything hurt.

"I was – I was counting days. I knew."

He swallowed hard before he continued again. She could see his Adam's apple bob violently.

"The Ascendant was too broken to use properly. But I tried to fix it to send them back."

"It was broken because you destroyed it!" She retorted, clutching at what was familiar. "Damon told me you destroyed it so that no one could ever use it again. You wanted me stuck there forever."

"I destroyed the Ascendant so that it couldn't be used to imprison me again."

"But you also wanted _me_ trapped there, didn't you, Kai?"

A familiar expression passed over his face. A mixture of anger and hunger. It was the same way he had sometimes looked at her in the prison world. She remembered that day when she had dared him, and he had almost drained her of magic, only letting her go at the last possible moment. He had stared down at her like that then.

That had been the first time but it hadn't been the last.

"I'm right, aren't I?" She asked him now, her voice shaking. "You wanted to pay me back but you also wanted to keep me there like some kind of caged pet."

His fists clenched, unclenched on his knees, but he didn't look away. "I've changed, Bonnie. I'm not the same person who-"

"I don't care!" She cried. Everything _hurt_. She was stretched thin and a hair's breath from breaking into pieces. "It doesn't matter! None of it does. There's nothing you can ever do to make me forgive you."

Pain flashed across his face. Then he was on his feet and striding to her, backing her right against the wall.

Her magic hovered at her fingertips. You only got one chance with Kai Parker and she was ready to do considerable damage with hers.

But his only attack was with words.

"Fine." His voice was deep and dark like the ocean during a storm. "You and I, Bonnie? We're even now."

It sounded like a warning.

Then he was gone.

Bonnie sank to the floor, bent her head over her knees and sobbed.

* * *

 **A/N** : Author's Note: Thank you so much to all my dear reviewers! Like I said, I'm glad for both praise and criticism because both are just as helpful. Please keep them coming! _JemiCloisFan_ , Kai's name didn't pop up because as far as Liv's concerned, Bonnie hates him. And it's been a year since he left Mystic Falls and parted ways with Bonnie. She also doesn't have the same kind of relationship with Kai that Jo does.

Thank you so much to my dear betas _thenameismaynard_ and _magicsuckcr_! You guys are the greatest! And if you haven't checked out _By and Down by keenan24_ here or any of _killerwarlock at tumblr's RPs_ , you don't know what you're missing in your lives.

Finally, keep the BonKai flag flying!


	4. 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

* * *

 _May 2014_

"Why did you come back?"

At first the question didn't register in Bonnie's head.

She and Matt were in the 'War Room' – the nickname they all gave the guestroom-turned-armory in the Salvatore boarding house. Crossbows, Molotov cocktails, magical weapons of all variety were lined up and stacked, filling practically every inch of space except for the table in the middle of the room, where there was just room enough for six people to stand around. The table itself was usually used to hold maps or scrolls or the occasional spell book and candles for what Damon called 'witchy juju stuff'.

Some witchy juju stuff was in progress now. Seven candles arranged as the points of a heptagram around the complicated box of machinery placed in their center. It was one of many Gilbert devices that Jeremy had sent over. Unable to come in person because he and his group of hunters were currently wading through a nest of vampires in Brooklyn, he had sent what help he could.

The device was a slightly different version of the same one that Bonnie had pretended to de-spell so many years ago. Now, she was tampering with Emily Bennett's magic for real – modifying the devices so that when they were set off on the heretics, they would harm only the intended targets, and not her own vampire friends. Bonnie had just put the finishing touches to her magic, and extinguished the candles when Matt asked his question.

He was whittling a stake at the small lathe machine. He, Bonnie and Enzo who was loitering somewhere in the cellar, were the only ones in the house. The other four had gone on reconnaissance.

She repeated Matt's question, trying to understand it.

"Why did I come back… to Mystic Falls?"

Matt shook his head. "Mystic Falls, yeah. But this whole …" He tilted his head to gesture at the whole room. "I sort of got the impression that this was behind you."

 _You and me both_ , she thought ruefully but all she said was: "Did I ever say that I was never coming back?"

He gave her a _look_ , his blue eyes skeptical. "Bonnie, during Thanksgiving weekend, those nomad werewolves tried to eat what was left of your campus, and you packed your bags and went to your Mom's."

"Because it was _Thanksgiving_?"

"Last Christmas, Demon Santa came to Mystic Falls and you spent your entire Winter break with your cousin Lucy."

"Give me Silicon Valley, California over snowy Virginia any day. Lucy is a blast. She taught me all sorts of cool magic and hacking stuff. Plus we went to Disney World."

"Bonnie…"

"But yeah, look at me choosing to spend time with the only family I have left. How incredibly selfish."

"I'm the last person… I would _never…_ " He groaned, and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. That made the stake wobble, and he quickly turned off the machine, then turned to face her fully. "Look, that's not what I'm saying at all. When Ty and I would come over to your place and talk shop, you were OK when the topic was mundane crime, but the moment it switched to supernatural stuff, you made some excuse to take off. I didn't even dare bring it up on the phone when I called. You didn't want us telling you about this stuff."

"Maybe because there was no need to? I mean, not to sound completely desensitized, but none of those cases ever ranked up the body count of the Originals, or Silas, or heck even Stefan and Caroline when they turned off their humanity switches. I was sure you guys could handle things, and – guess what? – you did."

He folded his arms. "Fine, then. So what's changed now?"

"It's Summer and I couldn't get an internship anywhere. You guys don't pay much, or at all, but still… I figured you could use my help."

He stared at her in disbelief. "Come off it, Bon. You can do that misdirection thing with everyone else but this is me, OK? Matt. We've known each other forever."

Her smiled wavered slightly. She looked away. "There's no big, dark secret reason why I'm here. What you see is what you get. I couldn't help before and now I can. That's it, Matt."

"No, that's not _it_. Sure, you never actually said you weren't coming back to Mystic Falls… but I helped you move your stuff to your new apartment and I knew you took everything you didn't want to come back for. Then remember just after you got back from Europe? That time some old friends of Damon rolled into town, looking for trouble? I tried to tell you about it and you just shut down the whole conversation. Acted like you had no idea what was going on. Like it wasn't any concern of yours."

"It wasn't."

"I know. You kinda … made it clear, without actually _saying_ anything that you didn't want to get involved anymore and I respected that. Tyler didn't understand. Damon and Stefan were pissed…"

Bonnie snorted.

"But everybody got used to not having you around anymore for the fights. And then suddenly, you show up for this."

"Are you complaining, Matt?" Bonnie asked, exasperation creeping into her voice. "If you think you don't need or want my help-?"

"Good heavens no!" He all but shouted. He walked over to her, and placed the stake on the table, then put a hand on her arm. "Are you kidding? We'd have all been dead the first time we went up against them. Well, except me, maybe." They both glanced at his hand and the familiar ring on his finger, then he turned his blue eyes back to her. "We _need_ you, Bonnie. I just… I guess I'm just worried about you, OK? You made some kind of resolution or something when you got back from Europe and now you seem to be backtracking and all I want is to be sure you're in this for the right reasons. That Damon or Stefan isn't pressuring you and Caroline isn't guilt-tripping you…"

Warmth filled Bonnie's chest. "No one's making me do anything I don't want to do, Matt," she said gently. "I'm doing this for me, for my own reasons."

"Is it because of April?" he pressed, but his voice was softer now, his hand warm on her arm.

Bonnie said nothing.

"I cared about her, too. We all did. She was a good kid, and what happened to her and the Grove Hill kid was sad but Bonnie… it wasn't your fault."

"I know that," she said half-truthfully. "And I'm not here because of her. At least, not _only_ because of her."

He squeezed her arm slightly. "So what is it? Come on, Bonnie. You can tell me."

His concern was touching – but it was also beginning to feel invasive and she tried to edge back, but his hand on her was firm. "I… Matt, I have my reasons. OK? Just … just take me at my word that no one is making me do anything." She sighed loudly. "And that's all I'm ready to tell you."

"Sure, of course."

"I'm sorry," she said, lamely.

He grinned quickly, covering the clear disappointment on his face. "Don't be. Just wanted to be sure that you're OK."

"I am," she said quickly. Then they looked around – at the weapons, the stake, the candles and the device – and they laughed. "Well, relatively speaking…"

"So touching."

Matt stepped back, his hand falling from her arm to the table, as they both turned to face the spiky-haired vampire who was loitering in the doorway.

"Bugger me, did I interrupt you lovebirds?"

Bonnie snorted as she turned back to the table, and started gathering the candles. "What's up, Enzo?"

"Nothing much. Just drank some blood bags downstairs but I still have a thirst for vein. Anyone care to help a mate out?"

Matt spun around, stake in hand but Bonnie was faster – her hand was out, her spell loud – and the vampire flew up into the roof, and came crashing down on the floor.

"Ow! Can't you muckers take a joke?"

"A joke?" Matt growled, still holding out his stake. "I still remember when you used to torment my life on a daily basis."

Enzo got to his feet, and gave both of them an exaggeratedly hurt look. "OK, Donovan, I haven't even _looked_ at you funny in yonks. Quit whinging already. As for your Witchy, I'll give you a pass because you've been out of circulation. But we're all mates now. While you were busy playing at being Little Miss Perfect College Student, I was saving your friends' lives over and over last year."

"You mean after putting us in danger first?" Matt retorted. "And don't pretend you didn't do half of that to impress Caroline. You don't give a damn about anybody else."

"Sorry that I hurt your feelings, mate," Enzo mocked, putting his hand on his chest and everything. "What do you think, Witchy? Is this a good time to tell Detective Gadget here that I think he's really fit but he's not my type?"

It took a while for him to grasp the meaning of Enzo's words but the evil leer on the vampire's face finally clued him in. Then Matt's face turned into such a picture of mingled horror and disgust that Bonnie couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

"Bonnie!" Matt cried, pained.

"I-I'm sorry, Matt," she said, trying and failing to stop.

He rolled his eyes, and moved sulkily back to the whittling machine.

"Don't give up so soon, it's a bloke's prerogative to change his mind-" Enzo started over the roar of the machine but Bonnie shushed him. She had felt the wards of the building change – and in a moment, the other two felt it – the magical alarm of sorts that Bonnie had set up to protect their houses.

The others had returned. Matt turned off the machine just as Caroline, Damon, Stefan and Tyler poured into the War Room.

Bonnie gasped at the sight of them. They all looked worse for wear. Being vampires and werewolf, their wounds had healed, but there was still blood on their ripped clothes. Caroline's blonde hair was streaked with red. Damon was limping, leaning on his brother. He spoke with a hoarse voice.

"Pieces of stake in my leg. Wicked evil spell. Bonbon, can you-"

She was already on it, guiding Stefan to position Damon so that he could lift the leg onto the table. His pants were torn from knee down. Even though his skin had closed, she could tell where the pieces of wood were from the lines of dessication that had formed where veins should have been. It was an easy enough spell to pull the wooden splinters, but she had to be careful not to split them further as they tore through vampire flesh and bone in their exit. It also didn't help that Damon yelped and jerked with every passage.

When it was done, Enzo was already at his friend's side with a blood bag.

"Thank you so much," Damon said earnestly to Enzo.

Bonnie gaped at him.

Damon gave her a wink. "Put that on my tab – list of thing I owe you."

She shoved at him, and he laughed. "You're too easy, BonBon."

"And you're a lousy spy. You all are," she added, turning to include Stefan, Caroline and Tyler in her reproach. "You were supposed to have been _silently_ observing and gathering intel, _not_ engaging."

"I wanted to leave when he spotted us," Tyler muttered. "But Carebear went 'come on guys, I can take him'." His voice went high-pitched.

"Shut up, Tyler," Caroline retorted but there was no sting in it. She hung her head. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. It was my fault. I thought since there was only one…"

Bonnie sighed. "You didn't mean any harm, Caroline. But we have to stop forgetting that these guys aren't… _hybrids._ They're witches, vampires _and_ siphons. They were raised in the Gemini coven and they have skills in spells that I haven't _heard_ about. Their vampire nature gives them an endless supply of magic. Their siphon nature feeds from _everything_ that has magic. All three combined has given them some form of immortality that we haven't figured out a loophole to. _Everyone_ in this room is vulnerable to them."

"Triple threat," Damon piped. "Top of the supernatural food chain. Got it."

"We can't tackle them like a football team. We can't _ever_ win against them without a planned method of attack."

"Good talk, Bonnie," Stefan said quietly. "Just one little thing… we don't have a plan, do we?"

She bristled. "I'm working on the Gilbert devices that Jeremy sent. Once I can re-spell them so they can't be used against _you_ , we can come up with some strategy to use them on the heretics."

"How long will that take?"

"As long as it takes, Stefan. You know, I could probably work faster if I didn't have to add your blood to the antiserum that I use on the devices? What do you say to that? It's for a good cause, right?"

He returned her furious look with a cool glare of his own.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Oh-Kay…" Damon declared, clearing his throat noisily. "I move the motion that this was a successful day since no one actually died." He pumped his arms in the air and hooted. Ignoring the baleful stares he received, he continued, "I propose that we all go downstairs and get thoroughly wasted on some excellent bourbon that I have been keeping for just this occasion."

"What occasion, Damon?" Tyler murmured. "Celebrating your continued existence?"

"Rats! I forgot. _You're_ still here. So no, this has not been a successful day! I propose we all go downstairs and get thoroughly wasted _mourning_ the continued existence of Tyler Lockwood."

Matt and Enzo snickered at that – which made Tyler look at his friend in outrage and made Matt in turn look horror-stricken at the realization that he had been in agreement in any capacity with Enzo.

Bonnie was hiding her smile behind her hand when Stefan spoke again.

"I have a better proposal: We petition the Gemini Coven for help."

* * *

 _June 2014_

Bonnie paused at the kitchen doorway and peeped in.

Liv was sitting at the counter; a can, a laptop and a box of pizza were open in front of her. She sat on the kitchen side of the counter so that she was looking into the living area. Rachel was playing a game with herself that involved rolling, sitting and rolling again.

"Kai's gone. You can come in." Liv's voice was extremely wry.

Bonnie pretended not to notice as she stepped inside, and poured herself a glass of water.

She said after a gulp, "I got a text from Damon. Apparently he got caught up downtown."

Liv rolled her eyes. "Caught up between someone's legs?"

Bonnie started chuckling, then she checked herself, remembering. "What he said about Luke earlier." Liv froze but Bonnie pushed on, feeling horrible. "It was out of line. I… I'm sorry." She felt angry even as she said the words, apologizing for Damon's insensitivity – and probably making herself a target for Liv's anger.

But damn it, Bonnie couldn't _not_ say something.

Liv looked up – and Bonnie braced herself for the other girl's acerbic wit.

But Liv just shrugged, completely calm. "Oh please, spare me the Elena Gilbert Kid Gloves treatment. Have you texted Damon back?"

Bonnie half-laughed, relieved enough to let the dig on her friend slide. "I texted back that he was a liar, some more censorable words, and finally that he owed us both. Full disclosure though: Damon's not good for much except maybe if you need someone's head ripped off…?"

Liv snorted. "I'll bear that in mind."

Bonnie checked the box of pizza and put two slices on a plate. "I thought there were two boxes?"

"Have you met my brother?" Liv said, glibly, then winced.

Bonnie tried to crack a smile, but her face wasn't quite working. She concentrated on the microwave, considering very carefully all her reheating options before popping in her plate.

All the while she could feel Liv's eyes boring through her back.

"So, you and Kai…"

Bonnie's shoulders stiffened.

"Is there something…"

Rachel wailed. The both dashed to the parlour. It wasn't anything serious, to their relief. The baby's rattle had rolled out her reach. Liv fished it out for her and Rachel thanked them with a beaming, toothless grin. Liv's eyes softened despite herself and Bonnie stroked the bald little head, grateful to the little girl in more ways than one.

The microwave beeped and she dashed back to the kitchen. She yanked its door open and grabbed a bite of the pizza, steaming hot and all. She walked around Liv's PC to sit on a counter stool and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be blueprints.

"What are you working on?" she asked, genuinely curious but also to keep the conversation away from its earlier topic.

"Some stuff from work." At Bonnie's raised eyebrow, Liv continued, "Believe it or not being a professional Gemini witch doesn't pay much. I freelance for this Architecture firm downtown. I'd probably get paid better if I did a proper 9 to 5 job but this way I get to pick and choose only the stuff I find interesting. And the money's not too bad. I can afford a place of my own, in case you've been wondering. I'm not just freeloading on Jo. I have a room here and everything because it's the easiest way to help out with the twins."

"I never thought that," Bonnie said, honestly. "If I had a big sister with kids, I'd probably move in and help too." She felt a little sad thinking about that. Most of her life, that had been her one wish. And of course, that would be a wish that no spell could grant.

If she had other siblings, her life would have been so different that she couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like now.

Liv laughed. "Trust me, you won't say that if you really had a big sister with kids." She looked across at Rachel with a rueful smile. "The little brats aren't half bad but it would be nice to deal with them only once a week. Heck, I'd probably still show up every day. I love them. I'd just like some me-time, you know? I haven't gone on a date in months."

"Oh."

"Mmm… hmmm… I was sort-of seeing someone in the office but you know how guys are. You aren't there 24/7 and they move on. Although, Tom started getting boring in the end. So maybe that worked out for the best."

That explained her disposition, Bonnie thought wryly as she chewed her pizza, but kept that little observation to herself. She was rather surprised that Liv was opening up this much to her.

"I'd kill for a weekend abroad," Liv continued. "I could afford to go on my own with all I've saved living here. Not Europe though. That's for Trust Fund babies from Virginia."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow at the last, and the snide glance that accompanied it. "Let me know when and we'll start a charity in your name anytime," she snarked. "We'll call it the Olivia Parker Tourism Fund."

Liv snorted. "Don't think I won't hold you to it. And while we're on the subject, how was Europe anyway? Saw your pictures on Facebook. It looked rad."

Bonnie gave her a look askance and took a pointed bite of her pizza.

"Oh, come on!"

"Whatever happens in Europe, stays in Europe," Bonnie said in between chews.

"That good, eh?" Liv asked enviously.

 _Dancing on every bar from Dublin to Vienna and back. Bicycle racing through den Hagg with Caroline. Bungee jumping with Elena in Ticino. Hiking through magical hotspots with Freya and Nora._

 _Wild parties. Wilder sex._

Bonnie shrugged. "It was OK."

"Liar!" Liv shouted. "Besides, if it was just 'OK', doppel-Gilbert won't have upped and left everything behind to stay there for good. What exactly is she doing there?"

"Finishing her medical degree at a hospital that has a residency program for trauma surgeons, specifically combat situations. That's what she's going to do," Bonnie said with no small pride.

Liv rolled her eyes. "I knew all that. Jo is bursting at the seams with pride at her little protégée. Makes me check Elena's online presence and everything. Which by the way has been silent for a while. Is she at a warzone or something now?"

BoBonnie sobered. It had also been a while since she heard from Elena; they hadn't spoken on the phone in ages – time zone differences and school made that hard – but they exchanged emails once in a while. The periods of long silence usually meant that Elena was somewhere incommunicado. Liv's flippant comment wasn't far off from the truth.

"I don't know," she said quietly.

Liv gave her a quick glance. "Well _I_ can't see any holidays or dates in the near future for me," she continued breezily, clearly picking up on Bonnie's mood and deciding to lighten the topic. "Not until the twins are pre-teens, probably. Jo practically begged me to move in here after I finished from Whitmore. Our stupid coven treated her like a pariah when she and Alaric came here and she needed someone in her corner. Kai was too busy playing impartial Coven Leader in the beginning, and Dad was too busy playing the noble ex-coven leader to be of much help."

Bonnie tensed at the mention of Kai's name and she hoped Liv missed it. She doubted it, if the flash in the other woman's sharp blue eyes was any indication.

"Why didn't the coven welcome Jo?" Bonnie asked hastily, trying to keep the conversation away from any dangerous topics. "They all turned out in mass for her wedding."

"And miss the free food, free booze and a chance to gossip about the Parkers? Or watch the snobby families cat-fight over who got to gloat about being in a Parker wedding?" Liv asked drily.

Vaguely, Bonnie remembered that there had been some kerfunkle about the last minute changes to the wedding train.

"That it turned into a massacre didn't do Jo any favours. Then the inquiry after and the whole business of the heretics being let out in the first place." She gave Bonnie a pointed look "They didn't want to blame Kai who was, you know, responsible."

Bonnie's heart thumped. "They knew?" She gasped. "That he let out-"

"Lily Salvatore?" Liv finished, her eyes glinting again. "It was kind of obvious since usually, only the Praetor truly has access to the Ascendants. You know, Jo thought she stole the 1994 Ascendant but the truth was that she was bribed with it. If my father wanted it back, he could have got it anytime. But even then, the Ascendants are kept secret from one Praetor to the next, and for good reason: Prison Worlds are built to last for eternity. The 1903 World was breached because Kai went looking for something he shouldn't have. When Lily escaped, it was only a matter of time for the rest of the heretics to follow."

Bonnie felt the familiar guilt churning inside her. She reached for the pitcher, poured herself water with shaky hands and tried to drown it some.

"But, of course, the Council wasn't going to indict its own leader for something like this. Like my father argued it was a stupid, dangerous mistake, but no real _malevolentia_. But they had to blame someone, even if it was someone they couldn't actually punish, so they latched on Jo. She was the closest Gemini around him at the time so she should have known better."

"What? And he let them?"

"Of course not. And he didn't let them blame you, either, which was something a few Council members also wanted." At Bonnie's gape, she grinned. "Besides the part you played, the Gemini don't trust or like other witches. And even more compelling, it would have been awesome for us to have something on a Bennett. Oh, the possibilities." Her eyes twinkled rather maliciously. Then she shook her head. "But Kai overruled all their recommendations, declared it _immo iudicium_ and closed the case." She reached for Bonnie's pizza and took a bite. "I'm guessing you have no idea what half of any of that means?"

"Whatever, Liv." Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I get that Jo wasn't abused by the coven and that's all that matters."

"Who said she wasn't?" At Bonnie's sharp look, Liv shrugged, and some of the mirth fell from her face. "The Praetor can overrule Council _iudicum_. But he can't go into people's minds and overrule the way they _think._ Lots of witches still blamed her. Weirdly enough, Kai not being a horrible Praetor is part of the problem. Some witches are now wondering exactly what was the big deal after all about the twins merging 18 years ago? Kai would have turned out alright back then, too. My father having to be Praetor way past his prime has been bad for the coven. Then there are the witches who aren't comfortable that Jo _exists_ at all."

Bonnie was in the middle of a sip of water and she choked. "What?"

"Yep. She copped out of the merge. _Twice._ "

"That's not what happened. Jo was going to merge with Kai. Luke stopped her."

"No one cares about Luke," Liv said, flatly. At Bonnie's shocked stare, she shrugged. "All they care about is that it's _unusual_ for the Praetor and his twin to be alive at the same time. Some say it's unnatural.

"And finally, there are those who still don't care how good a Praetor he is. He will always be a siphoner. They freak out over the fact that the coven leader is one sip of vamp blood and one broken neck away from being an actual heretic. Things have changed since he actually started doing the job. But back in the beginning of his reign, if Kai's life hadn't been in danger in the 1903 prison world, the council would probably have voted that he be left there for as long as it took Jo's twins to grow up, merge and take the coven leadership from him."

Bonnie felt a cold hand run down her spine. "That sounds so-"

"Cruel? Cold?" Liv smirked. "Is this coming from you? Really?"

Her temper rose, red and sharp. "You tried to kill him, too. Even though you knew it would have murdered your entire coven. So don't you sit there and judge me," Bonnie snapped.

Liv made a face, as if attempted murder and genocide was a bad hair-cut she had grown out of. "My twin just died. I was pissed. I'm over it now."

Bonnie's temper fizzled. "Yeah, I can see that." They were all apparently over everything – Luke's death, four murdered siblings, Kai returning from the prison world and terrorizing them.

 _"I want to give the Gemini coven an excruciating death."_

It sure put her mad determination to keep him locked up in 1994 into perspective.

Liv left the baby playing on the mat and went back to the kitchen counter and her open laptop.

"So I guess what you're saying is that all is not well with the Gemini coven, and I shouldn't feel too bad that you guys aren't going to help us?" Bonnie asked.

Liv shrugged. "I won't go as far as to say 'all is not well'. It's more like: we're still kind of in transition right now and too many anomalies are existing at the same time. Many in the coven went into hiding after the merge because, you know, the abomination became King. Then Kai made up with Dad - I still have no idea how _that_ happened - and Dad called them back. Saving our collective asses at Jo's wedding helped a lot, too. But still... Kai's only been leader for a year and he started out by making a spectacular mess of things with the 1903 prison world fiasco. Since then... Well, no one can't say he doesn't get things done, but he's not very orthodox. Witches need constant reassurance. He may be Praetor, but if the whole coven revolts against him they can do some serious damage."

"So this is politics, then. He's protecting himself?"

"He's protecting the _coven_. We're literally only as strong as our Praetor, and the Praetor is only as effective as the rest of the witches' loyalty to him. We can't do any good if we fall apart or are destroyed, can we?" She asked pointedly.

Grudgingly, Bonnie nodded. Of course, Kai had tried to say the same thing to her mere moments ago and it hadn't sounded reasonable then.

She pushed that errant thought from her head.

"Do you have any idea how many enemies the Gemini have? You've been a witch for a few years and how many have you picked up?"

Bonnie actually started counting mentally before she gave up, shaking her head.

Liv nodded. "We've been around for _two millennia_. We've stepped on a couple millions of toes. The last thing we need is our enemies knowing that we're vulnerable. We're not, by the way," she said with a sharp, warning look at Bonnie.

Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Our father supported Kai one hundred per cent and that got the Council on his side. All the exiles that count are back. Jo's twins were born and there's a clear succession plan. Kai's methods may not be popular, but he's got some great results. The coven's back to being revered in the supernatural world. It's actually been a good year for the Gemini."

"Chill, Liv. I'm not going to tell anyone about your coven's problems. I just wish Damon and I knew all this before we made the trip."

Liv shrugged. "You got to see us all again, didn't you?" she said cheekily. "And Kai."

Bonnie gave her another warning look and Liv winked in a way that was so like her oldest brother that Bonnie felt her stomach hurt.

She looked instead at the baby, who had now somehow got a hold of some of a book and was gumming at the edges. Bonnie dashed over to take it away. Rachel tugged a little, but there was not much fight in her, especially after Bonnie dangled a toy in front of her.

She went to put the book out of the child's reach and an idea popped into her head.

"Do you have a Grimoire with you here that I can take a look at?" Bonnie asked, casually.

"I have some upstairs," Liv said casually. Then her voice sharpened with curiosity. "Why? What are you looking for?"

There was no point hiding it. "How to kill a heretic."

Liv laughed. "You won't find that in a Grimoire."

"Let me be the judge of that," Bonnie retorted.

Liv hesitated.

"Liv, if there's information there that can help-?"

"There isn't," Liv insisted. Then she shrugged, even though her eyes were still wary. "Fine. I'll get you some and you can knock yourself out."

"Thanks. I don't suppose if you knew how to kill a heretic, you'd tell me?" Bonnie asked, one last ditch effort.

"Nope."

"No, you don't know or no, you won't tell me?" Bonnie asked, exasperated.

"Both. I'll tell you this much: the only person I know of that _has_ ever killed a heretic, is my brother."

Bonnie raised her chin. "I'm a Bennett. Believe it or not, Liv, I can be a pretty bad-ass witch, myself."

"My point exactly: You're a _witch_."

Her words were ominous and the look she gave Bonnie now was loaded with meaning. Then she went back to work, leaving Bonnie to chew on her pizza and her worries. And for the first time in a year, Bonnie finally let her mind go back to _that_ night. To that time, when for a short time, she had been something more than just a witch.

* * *

 _May 2014_

And there it was, just like that, the one possibility that Bonnie had refused to even let herself begin to consider.

She opened her mouth to shut it down at once – but Damon did it first.

"Not happening, bro."

"I'm serious, Damon."

"No, Stefan, _I'm_ serious. _You_ clearly have been inhaling too much of Caroline's nail polish."

"I'm on Stefan's side in this," Caroline snapped.

Damon looked skywards. " _Color me shocked!_ "

"Not because it's Stefan," Caroline continued, glaring at the brothers in turn, "but because it makes sense. The Gemini fought and won against four of these heretics a year ago. I brought this up the first time we figured out what these guys were. I really don't understand why we haven't asked them already."

"They also lost a lot of their witches fighting the heretics," Tyler said quietly. "They might not be so eager to take the heretics on again, especially if they remain in Virginia, far away from Oregon."

"We'll never know unless we ask," Caroline insisted. "Bonnie, don't you think so?"

Many thoughts were churning through Bonnie's head right now and she stared at her friend, struck dumb because she couldn't decide which one she could say out loud.

"If the Gemini come to Mystic Falls, I'll leave."

Everyone turned to the spiky-haired vampire.

Enzo's voice was hard, all trace of his usual irreverent humor gone.

Caroline looked betrayed. "Enzo, don't you think-"

"No, Care, I do not. Their leader locked Lily up like some kind of animal," he said through gritted teeth.

"She was a ripper, unstable, out of control…"

"So is Stefan," Enzo roared. "Didn't see anyone throwing him in the clink. Her sons didn't lift a finger to save her, act like it's no big deal" – he gave Stefan a particularly poisonous look – "but I do. I'm not asking help from the same people that locked her up. And none of you duffers should, if you have a lick of sense. You've all forgotten what happened with the Travelers. You don't want to mess with the Gemini. They hate vampires on principle. Their idea of fixing problems like this is taking everyone out, good and bad. There's no telling that after this whole thing goes down, they won't decide to throw us all in the same clink. Or hang us from the same noose." Pain crossed his face. "At least we'd keep each other company which is far better than the deal your mom got."

Bonnie, Damon and Stefan glanced at each other in turn, secrets in their eyes, and then looked away.

Caroline's eyes were shining. "We'll get Lily back someday, Enzo."

He scoffed, bitter.

"And what happened with the Travelers was a long time ago," Tyler added. "It was a war between the two covens. We just got caught in the crossfire. The Gemini won't betray us this time."

Enzo's lips curled in mockery. "Think your girl will protect you? Like how she did at the wedding?"

"I stayed to fight while the rest of you turned tail and ran and _you_ are mocking me?" Tyler sounded more amazed than insulted.

"They should consider themselves lucky. If I knew what I did about Lily then, I'd have joined the heretics to fight _against_ them," Enzo snarled.

"You-"

"Tyler," Bonnie interrupted. "I know I've asked. You've probably been asked a dozen times already by all of us. But I have to ask again. You outlasted me in that fight. Do you remember anything about that night? _Anything_ at all that can help us?"

He gave her a helpless look. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I've gone through this over and over in my mind. Liv and about half a dozen witches were battling against two heretics. They had managed to flank Liv on either side, and a third was bearing down on her from the rear. I blocked the spell, knocked it down, tore out its throat. I rolled to attack the other two. Then suddenly, it went dark. It _shouldn't_ have been a spell – I was in wolf form, immune to magic – but who knows with these heretics? Whatever they did to me, turned me human, and knocked me out. This was probably about an hour or so after Kai returned. When I came to, I was with the rest of the people they had ported to safety. Liv was still at the battle. None of the other witches told me anything. If the battle was over. If she was safe. Nothing. Just gave me some clothes, patched me up and put me in a cab home. I didn't get to see Liv until days later. She didn't tell me anything much then, too. Guess we'd said all we had to say already to each other." A shadow passed over his face, but he shrugged it off with a patently fake smile. "At least this time, _she_ didn't knock me out and leave me lying on the ground."

Bonnie sighed with disappointment. It was the same story he had told her already. Not even one iota of information was new.

"Knocked you out?" Damon asked, latching on, in his typical way, to the creepiest things. "What kind of kinky stuff were you and Goldilocks into?"

Tyler scowled. "Won't you like to know, Damon?"

"So, if I get all you said right: you got your ass kicked, your girlfriend had to save you, and then she dumped you, probably because of all the above?

"Is this coming from the guy whose sorry-ass Elena dumped the minute she turned human and free from his sire-"

"We're wasting time," Stefan said, quickly cutting off the soon-to-be ugly altercation. "If we can't agree on this, then we vote." Everyone started talking at once but his voice overrode them. "They're seven of us so we can decide on this here and now. And everybody has to stick to the plan."

"Except me," Enzo growled. "I'm bloody leaving."

"Everybody except Enzo," Stefan amended, indifferently. "I vote Yes. We need them. We eat humble pie and ask for help."

Damon had gone back to glaring at his brother. "You're willing to work with Kai Parker? After _everything_?"

And there it was. The name. It was like a kick in her ribs, making her breaths shallow. Bonnie's fingers knotted together painfully.

Stefan glared back at Damon. "Kai Parker is not the one I have a problem with."

Even the others picked up on the sudden tension between the brothers, the load of unspoken resentment in Stefan's words. They probably even thought they knew the reason for it.

They were wrong.

With a small shiver of surprise, it hit Bonnie then that somehow, impossibly, they had all four of them– Damon, Stefan, Elena and Bonnie – actually managed to keep that little secret for over a year.

"Well, I vote No," Damon growled, then looked at everyone in turn with bulgingly menacing eyes, as if daring them to vote otherwise.

Caroline threw him a contemptuous look and flipped her hair. "I vote Yes, for all the obvious reasons. Put your stupid eyes back in your stupid face, Damon."

"No," Enzo said brusquely. He looked away from Caroline's hurt face.

"Yes," Tyler said quietly. He shoved his hands into his pocket, and his gaze was unwavering. "Stefan's right. There's no guarantee that they'll agree to help us. But we have to ask. We have to put our difference aside and reach for help."

"And you get your old girlfriend back, maybe?" Damon sneered.

Tyler didn't deign to reply. He looked at Matt, who had been quiet all this while.

Bonnie turned to look at him, too, and was surprised to find him already staring at her. She couldn't make out the look on his face, but after staring at her for a heartbeat, he nodded to himself as if he was deciding something.

"No," he said firmly. "We don't need the Gemini. They're more trouble than they're worth."

He was still staring hard at Bonnie when he finished, and she had a feeling that he was trying to tell her something with that stare but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what it was.

It took her a moment to realize that all eyes were on her now.

"It's a tie, Bonnie," Caroline said. "Three-Three. You break it."

 _Oh no_.

"Bonnie, we need the Gemini," Stefan said sternly. "You've done your best but it may not be enough."

"Stefan," Caroline said, warningly.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Bonnie said testily.

"If you say Yes, I'm walking," Enzo repeated for the zenith time.

"No one cares, Enzo," Bonnie murmured.

"It's down to you, Bonnie B," Damon sing-sang. "Class of '94 reunion or no?"

* * *

 _June 2014_

An hour after Rachel joined her twin to sleep, Liv was still downstairs, working against her deadline and Bonnie was upstairs, cross-legged on her bed, skimming through four leather-bound books with the double figure crest on their spines – Gemini Grimoires.

Liv's earlier reluctance made sense when she asked Bonnie to keep her use of the books to herself.

"Coven gets weird about sharing our stuff with outsiders," she said. "Let's not damage your already shaky standing with them."

Bonnie rolled her eyes but agreed, more for Liv's sake than her own.

The earliest entry in all four books was dated in 480AD. Before then the oldest Grimoire she had seen was dated from 1429AD. Spread before her on top of her patterned duvet was over a millennia and a half worth of chronicles of magical discoveries, incantation, experiments and major events; and she knew that these were probably not the oldest, not for a coven that had been in existence since a few centuries BC.

For the first time, it dawned on Bonnie just how old and ancient and _permanent_ the Gemini were. Of course, she had known this before – academically. But now, the reality hit her with full force. She had got so used to Liv and her family – most of them – that she had forgotten that they were part of an institution that was older than many major religions in the world.

A shiver ran up her spine as she cracked open the first book. She wondered how she had ever imagined that she could waltz into their home base and bend them to her will.

 _Kai staring her down across the kitchen counter, sharp-eyed, scruff jawed, with his rings of power and authority glinting in the low light. Every resemblance to that Peter Pan-like creature she had first met almost two years ago almost entirely erased from him._

Praetor.

 _"Not them,"_ her inner voice said treacherously. _"You only need to bend one."_

She shook her head to silence it.

There was a spell tailor-made for searching through magical text like scrolls and spell-books for specific information. She chanted it now, and asked for any record of heretics in the first book. She came up with nothing. She repeated the spell for the remaining three.

Nothing.

She searched for siphons. Siphoners. Siphon magic. The ability to draw out magic from living or non-living sources or both. Records of children of witches who had been born without magic.

Nothing.

She groaned and covered her face with her hands. She needed help with this. She picked up her phone and called Damon. It rang to the end. With a half-sigh, half-curse, she dialled Caroline's number.

Her bestfriend picked on the first ring. She sounded perky, despite the late hour and Bonnie quickly filled her in on the events of her disastrous day.

"What's the big secret about killing heretics?" Caroline asked once Bonnie was done.

Bonnie tugged on her hair. There was something – an idea – that had started taking shape in her head. But it was little more than a nebulous thought, tangled up in even murkier memories.

She shook her head. "I have no idea. What about you guys? Have you found anything?"

"We've already checked the entire Salvatores' library twice already, your Bennett grimoires, the collection you got from the Martins's. We've got nothing, Bonnie."

"We can't. The Gemini aren't going to help us with this, Care. We're going to have to wait it out until the vervain drives them out of town."

Caroline said nothing.

Bonnie knew her friend well – too well. Alarm bells immediately started ringing in her head.

"What are you keeping from me, Care?" she asked at once.

"It's probably nothing."

"We made a deal when this thing started, when I came back to Mystic Falls. No secrets, lies or _half-_ truths. No back deals, no hidden agendas. I want all cards on the table at all times or I walk."

"Bonnie, chill."

"Caroline…"

Caroline sighed dramatically. "Fine. It's something Stefan and I thought of when we started painting the town with vervain. We hoped we'd be wrong but it looks like…"

"Just spit it out."

Bonnie could almost see Caroline narrowing her eyes and bracing herself to give the bad news. "A vampire can build a tolerance to vervain. It usually takes years and years of small doses and we hoped that the heretics, being hybrids would take longer, may not even be able to…"

Dread formed at the bottom of Bonnie's stomach. "But they have."

"That's why I didn't want to say anything. We're not sure… But they were spotted in the Park. It has vervain shrubs all over its boundary. But they were both there, strolling through the Park like if they were normal people, not blood-magic sucking monsters. They didn't stay for long though. Barely ten minutes. Maybe they're still…"

"… building tolerance? But that's it, isn't it Care? They are _building tolerance_." She ran an agitated hand through her hair. "We thought we'd found a way out of this. Something far from perfect, but at least something we could fall back on if the Gemini turned us down. Oh god, Caroline," Bonnie said despairingly. "What do we do? When does this ever stop?"

"Don't give up now, Bonnie," Caroline said gently.

"I haven't. It's just… I fooled myself into thinking that this was over. That… I'd put this part of my life behind me."

" _Bonnie…_ "

She forced herself to get a grip. "I'm sorry Care. I just… I just don't know what to do right now."

"You'll talk to him again. You'll make him see reason."

"I've talked to the Council. I've talked to K… their leader. I mean, I could ask Damon to go talk to him but that would probably end with someone's head on the floor."

"You've got to try harder."

Bonnie rubbed her eyes with the back of her free hand. "I'll talk to Jo tomorrow. I'll ask her… beg her to make a case for us."

"You're better off talking to Kai yourself."

Bonnie swallowed her impatience. "Care, I already told you-"

"Or maybe more than just talking…" Caroline's voice was so quiet that Bonnie barely made out her words before they trailed off.

Bonnie almost wished she hadn't. "What are you trying to say, Caroline?" she snapped.

Her old and usually dear friend exhaled noisily, then started speaking very quickly. "Maybe if you and Kai worked out your issues with each other…"

"Caroline…"

"…you could get him to help us. Whatever he felt for you is clearly still there and I know you…"

"Caroline!"

"…care, too. Just think about it, OK, Bonnie?" Caroline spoke louder, clearly determined to finish what she had to say. "It's a win-win for everyone. You make up. He fixes the heretics. Everyone lives happily ever after. Except, of course, the heretics."

"Caroline."

"It's for a good cause."

" _Caroline, are you out of your-?_ "

"Oh, look at the time. I have to go."

The line ended abruptly.

Bonnie covered her mouth with her hands and screamed into them. The urge to call Caroline back and rip her a new one was overwhelming. Instead, she channelled it into furiously searching through the Grimoires, her spellwork so erratic now that the pages of the books flew as the magic flipped through them, some of the loose sheaves rising into the air.

 _"To find the 1903 Ascendant, I have to navigate ancient texts, undo layers and layers of cloaking spells…"_

She shook her head again and asked for any mention of Lily Salvatore.

Nothing.

 _Kai sitting across from her in the café, his eyes hard as he sipped his drink and dared her to turn down his offer_.

 _Kai's eyes burning through her as she stood before him in that room, daring her to leave._

Any mention of the 1903 Prison World.

Nothing.

 _Her own hands running through his thick hair, tracing with awe the zig-zag line of white strands that had sprung across his head_.

Any mention of _any_ prison world.

Nothing.

 _Kai catching snow with his tongue._

 _His tongue. His mouth._

 _"Running away, Bonnie?"_

"Get out of my head," she whispered out loud.

But he was in her head. Had never quite left, if she was to be honest with herself. And now that Caroline had planted this insane idea, it had taken root, it was growing. The more she tried not to think about it, the more it filled her mind.

 _"It's for a good cause,"_ Caroline's voice whispered in her head like a snake.

"Damn you, Caroline," Bonnie muttered, spelling the books shut. She wasn't thinking this. She wasn't considering it.

 _"Whatever he felt for you is clearly still there…"_

Caroline didn't know that. How could she from a terse and edited summary of a thirty-minute conversation? How could she when _Bonnie_ didn't know that? All she knew was that it had been a mistake calling Caroline. It had definitely been a mistake the first time she had broken and confessed to her and Elena.

Desperately, Bonnie picked up her phone and dialled Damon again. He had been the first person she had wanted to talk to over the Gemini's refusal to help and when the phone rang to end without him picking, she nearly threw it on the wall.

 _Her fingers trapped between Kai's wrist and the leather wristband, his other hand sliding along the hem of her shirt, his rings brushing lightly against her waist and setting off tiny explosions under her skin._

She thought she had pushed the memories into the furthest recess of her mind, forgotten for all time. But now they came flooding back in such clear detail, she felt she would go insane.

 _His salty skin. And his blood… she could have died happy drinking it._

Damn Caroline's suggestion. Damn her.

She was actually shivering, Bonnie realized, her arms coming around to hug herself. She picked up her phone again and her fingers hovered over the keypad. A thrill of shock ran through her. She didn't have a number to call. Didn't know the number to call. But she had picked up the phone with every intention of calling _him_.

 _"It's for a good cause."_

She could ask Liv for his number. Liv would give Bonnie a knowing look but she'd give Bonnie the number all the same.

 _Oh god, am I truly considering this?_ Bonnie thought to herself as she started walking towards the door.

The moment she opened it, she heard the baby crying and then Liv's footsteps rushing up the stairs.

They met at the door of the nursery.

It was only one twin. They bundled her out before she set off her sister.

"I thought you were asleep," Liv said, almost accusingly as she looked at Bonnie with tired eyes.

"No," Bonnie replied. They were standing near the top of the steps and Liv was carrying Martha, swaying as she did so.

"Let me take care of her," Bonnie said desperately. "I'm not anywhere near sleep and you have work to do."

Liv literally dropped the baby into Bonnie's arms faster than a hot potato. Bonnie clutched the child to herself as if she were clutching her salvation.

The next few hours were so busy with feeding, changing and entertaining Martha – who apparently had a more cantankerous personality than her easy-going twin – that she almost succeeded in chasing away the insane idea that Caroline had planted in her head.

Almost.

Martha, after all, was the child that her uncle had been rocking to sleep a few hours ago.

* * *

 _June 2013_

If not for the sudden silence that surrounded her, she won't have been aware that they had ported. Her body was still locked in Kai's arms, his broad shoulders blocking out both light and air.

His body was heavy on hers, his bloody, brooding face inches from her own. For a moment, they were both still, staring at each other. Then her brain kicked in and she shoved hard with her hands and with magic. She was a little surprised that he yielded, falling back to a crouch before her. She skidded backwards as fast as she could until her back hit something hard.

That was when she managed to look round and register the familiarity of her surroundings. They were in her college dorm room. She had backed into the foot of her own bed.

The room was empty of everyone except Ms Cuddles who was sitting on Bonnie's pillow, and Bonnie could swear that the bear was staring with a " _what the fuck is he doing here?_ " look on her face.

Which was a very good question.

"What the hell, Kai?" Bonnie gasped. She glared up at the man who had brought her here against her will. Kai was already on his feet and she could feel the magic he was drawing into himself. He was getting ready to ditch her.

The bolt of power she sent at him was propelled with more anger than finesse, but it did the trick – literally tripping him up, and stopping his portation spell.

"Woah!" he yelled, hopping.

"Take me back to the wedding, Kai!"

He smirked – he actually smirked – as he righted himself, smoothening down the black tuxedo that fit him like a glove, stained as it was with soot and blood. The blood on his face had dried there, his eyes were lit from the effort of recent magic, his jaw was set and Bonnie couldn't help thinking that his bloody face was reflecting the madness of the mind within. Between his face and his suit, he looked lethal, more so than usual.

Her dorm room was large, luxurious really by any standard, but with him inside it, the room suddenly seemed very small, constricted almost like if his very presence had consumed all the air.

Bonnie swallowed hard against the sudden dryness in her throat.

"You can drive yourself. Should take you about an hour in this weather. Oh wait, your car's stuck at the venue. Uh oh."

She glanced out then, and through the open windows, she could see the storm churning across the sky. And now that she was listening for it, she could also hear the rumble of distant thunder. All the stations had predicted clear weather this weekend. That was the whole point of the wedding being fixed for today.

But of course, none of the meteorologists could have predicted tonight's magical showdown.

"I will Uber my way there if I have to," she vowed.

Kai's smirk wavered. "Is that some kind of portation spell?"

Bonnie blinked at him, and it took her a moment to realize that he wasn't joking. Of all things to almost make her laugh now: Kai Parker, man out of time, still figuring his way around 21st century jargon.

It was her turn to taunt. "Possibly. _Phaesmotos uber_. Also, I'm a Bennett, remember? And no one can MacGyver as good as me. You go ahead, Kai. I'll see you in five."

His face hardened. "Don't you dare go back there, Bonnie."

Bonnie rolled her shoulders casually, infuriatingly. "Hurry along now. Don't you have a wedding to get to?"

He took a step towards her, his face menacing and her smile slipped off, her heart jumping as she scrambled to her feet quickly, magic rushing to her fists.

He halted. His face twisted. "I'm not going to hurt you," he growled.

"I believe you. Do you know why? Because I'm not going to _let_ you."

"Did you miss the memo, Bonnie?" His growl was now tinged with exasperation. "The one in the form of Headless Horseman there re-attaching his head? In case you hadn't figured it out: it wasn't PWR that made those things indestructible back in 1903."

PWR. Prison World Resuscitation. That had been the explanation, back in 1903, for how a heretic that they had watched get blown into pieces before their eyes, had been up and running mere moments later.

Apparently, they had been way off the mark.

For a split-second, Bonnie wasn't in her warm dorm-room but in a winter wasteland, staring down into nauseating whorls of gold.

She couldn't hide her shudder and Kai nodded grimly. "I know this is impossible for your brain to comprehend but I'm trying to keep you safe here."

Her hackles rose at once but she held her tongue. The less she said, the sooner he'd leave and she could figure out her next move. But if he imagined she was sitting this out, he had another think coming.

His eyes narrowed at her silence. "Comprehend is another word for 'understand', or in case that's also too hard, it's also a stand-in for 'get'. Do you _get_ me, Bonnie?"

Bonnie almost hated herself for rising to the obvious baiting but she simply couldn't help it. He did that to her. "You're right. It is impossible for me to understand that you're up to any good. I _get_ that much."

Kai advanced on her, his taller and larger build clearly intending to intimidate her. But Bonnie stood her ground, lifting her chin defiantly.

"This. is. not. your. fight," he grounded out. His face was bent so close to hers that she could see the blood on his face was dry and flaky. "You know, the IQs of all your friends put together can barely make one functional brain but even _they_ figured out that much. They all took off first chance they got. They left you," he added, for good mocking measure.

Bonnie recoiled, stung. "They didn't know I was there! I was coming to warn them and your coven." And _to warn you_ , she added in her mind and that made her even more furious. That she had actually been _worried_ about him – for his coven's sake, yes but still – this was the thanks she got?

"Yeah, I noticed," he said, surprising her because at the time she got to the ceremony, she could have sworn he had half a dozen other more pressing concerns at the time.

A literal half dozen – six heretics all hell-bent on destroying his coven.

"Your timing could have been better but hey, it's the thought that counts. By the by, however did you know they were out and coming to the wedding?"

And the question made Bonnie wary for a totally different reason. "What does it matter?" she muttered.

But he was already figuring it out, realization fast dawning on his face. "Were you…? But of course, you had to be… _What were you doing in my apartment, Bonnie_?"

The question should have been intimidating. And it was, Bonnie insisted to herself. But it was also – the way he asked, his voice going low, his eyes glinting as he stared hard _through_ her own eyes, as if he wanted to pull out the memory from her head, so that he could replay for himself the image of her in his house.

She had a flash of memory from earlier that day – her own self, running her hands over his clothes, his bed. _For_ _ingredients for a spell!_ She snapped to herself. But it didn't stop the sudden heat from rising in her face, or her own feet from stumbling as she took a step back, suddenly overwhelmed by his proximity.

He followed, closing back the gap and then entering her space. The back of her legs hit the bed and there was nowhere else to move. His scent filled her nostrils – a strange mix of blood, wood and brimstone that should have been repulsive but was strangely … not.

"Bonnie," he said again, his voice still low. His eyes were now flickering from her face to the bed behind her and back.

The already thin air between them became even thinner. Feeling like if she needed to distract him from _whatever_ was going through his mind, she burst out quickly: "They were looking for you. To kill you. We tried calling ahead to warn everyone but…" She shrugged helplessly. "So I drove like hell to get to the ceremony on time to warn you."

His face softened. "Well, on behalf of my coven, I thank you."

He sounded genuine, even smiled a little, tentatively; he was so obviously mocking her.

A sarcastic retort was already on the top of her tongue when Bonnie caught his eyes and it died there.

His eyes were shining with something that in another person, she would have sworn was gratitude.

Warmth mingled with confusion rose inside her. He was mocking her, she told herself; he _had_ to be. Because even if – and it was a very big IF – Kai was ever going to thank her for anything – why for this? It was such a stupid thing to be grateful for – her attempt to help that hadn't even succeeded; she hadn't stopped the heretics from getting to the wedding; she hadn't even got a warning to him in time.

In the past, she had done far more tangible things for her friends than just a botched warning; and all she had to show for that was Elena's increasingly absent-minded appreciation or a back-handed compliment from Damon.

Thankfully, this train of insidious, confusing thoughts was cut short by what he said next.

"But now, this is Gemini business and you're going to stay out of it."

Bonnie's spine snapped straight, that momentary warmth chilling at once at the imperiousness in his voice. "No, I won't. Not when I'm needed. Do you even know how to kill those things?"

" _Do you_?" he snapped.

Bonnie clenched her fists. "Stop getting in my way and I'll figure it out."

He looked like if he wanted to shake her. "I said no, Bonster! I know you get a turn on from putting your life in danger, but you're going to look for cheap thrills somewhere else today!"

"Look the other way if you must, Kai but I am coming. And stop pretending that you give a damn about my safety."

"I don't give a damn about you in anyway," he snapped.

"Perfect," Bonnie said, baring her teeth in a mock grin. "So I'm coming."

"I don't want the bad karma of a Bennett, no matter how misguided this particular breed is, dying at my sister's wedding."

Bonnie couldn't help it – she burst into laughter. Even to her ears, she sounded half hysterical and she could tell from the way he was looking at her, that he thought so too.

"You're up against something that you don't know how to kill. I would have thought a coven leader would be desperate for any help he can get at a time like this. But instead, you've been wasting time here while your people are fighting, trying to persuade me _not_ to help. Makes me wonder what you're really trying to achieve here, Kai."

For the first time since they got to Whitmore, his face lit up with fury. "What's that supposed to mean?"

His tone was ominous, a clear warning to Bonnie not to answer – and obviously, a challenge that she wasn't going to back down from.

"I'm beginning to wonder if you really want to save your coven. You've only been plotting to destroy for them for the past two decades. Maybe that's why you're so determined I'm not there to save them. Maybe that's what this is really all about – an excuse to abandon them. Are you even going back there?"

His chest was heaving now; he looked angry enough to breathe fire. "I won't even dignify that with a response. I don't care what you believe, Bonnie, but you stay out of this or I swear, I'll-"

"You'll what, Kai?"

If it were possible for a look to burn, his furious eyes would have turned her into ashes by now. She probably looked the same. For a long moment, they just glared each other down, neither giving an inch. They were so near now, they were breathing the same air. She could see the torn skin under the line of blood that ran from his temple to his chin. The incongruous thought flashed through her mind that he really ought to have that seen to.

Then his eyes narrowed, the fury giving away to something cold, calculating. He stretched out his arm then, silent magic whispering, and Bonnie tensed, her own magic ready to set him on fire. But his hand went over her head – and Ms Cuddles, who had all this while been sitting on Bonnie's bed minding her own business, came flying from her pillow into his grip.

Bonnie stared incredulously as Kai grinned at the bear. "Betcha thought you'd seen the last of me, huh?" he snarked, something like real fondness spreading across his face. Then his eyes fell back at her, hard and still calculating.

It hit Bonnie then, horror rising inside her.

"No," she shouted – and the silent, automatic _Motus_ sent him flying across her dorm. She _vatosed_ the beds after him for good measure.

She scrambled to her feet and ran to her door, yanking it open and rushing down the corridor.

It was like something from one of her dreams. Her running down the dark corridors of her dormitory and Kai chasing her. She was looking back to see if he was following – and that was when she bumped into something tall and hard that had suddenly appeared in front of her.

Her breath went out in a whoosh at the impact, cutting off her scream. She tried to backtrack but his arm whipped round her waist, yanking her against his hard body. Panicked, she slammed her hands against his chest, pushing back for some much needed breathing room. She barely got even an inch. His grip on her had absolutely no give.

She tried another _motus_ but he was ready this time, and it fizzled away into the air.

"No," she panted, despairingly. "No."

He waved Ms Cuddles in her face; the little bear had never looked so menacing. "You'll get it back," he said, his voice as hard as his grip. "It may not look like to your righteous mind but I'm doing you a favour. Consider this a freebie."

Then her magic was rushing out of her pores. The first bolt of pain sent her reeling into him, and she felt his arms draw her close. But after that, the pain sank into a muted throb, to be replaced by a dizzy nausea that made her feel like if she was slowly dying.

He was saying something, his words fast and angry, but she couldn't hear over the roaring of blood in her head.

When the darkness beckoned, she stepped into it gladly.

* * *

 _June 2014_

The text message must have come in sometime in the early hours of the morning but by then, Bonnie was fast asleep – finally – and dead to the world. She didn't see it until early the next morning.

There was news from Matt. Someone who looked very likely to be a witch had been found dead in a motel near Mystic Falls.

* * *

 **A/N** : Thank you so much to all my dear reviewers! I am so pumped to read all your lovely, lovely feedback. I'm so glad you're getting a Season 7 feel about this before that's pretty much how the plot bunny entered my head. _pennytree_ said in the last Charade update (y'all reading that fic, right? hot!sexy!Kai and magical makeouts galore!) said that perhaps it was a good thing Kai was killed off on the show so the writers couldn't ruin him or ruin Bonkai. A lot of times, I feel the exact same way.

A BIG THANKS to my dear betas _thenameismaynard_ and _magicsuckcr_! You guys are the greatest! And if you haven't checked out _By and Down by keenan24_ here or any of _killerwarlock at tumblr's RPs_ , you don't know what you're missing in your lives.

Finally, keep the BonKai flag flying!


	5. 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

* * *

 _June 2013_

She looked at his bared wrist with horror, even more so as she felt the veins on her face deepening, her strange new teeth cutting against her gums.

"Put that away," she said weakly.

It would have been easier if he was smiling, smirking, looking at her with any kind of mockery that would make the defiant stubbornness in her rise. But his face was dark with something like desperation. When she didn't reach for his wrist, he tilted back his neck so that she could see the thick vein jumping underneath his skin.

It took everything not to launch herself at him there and then.

"I hope you don't mind if I try to exert some control in all this."

His voice wasn't helping. It was lower than she'd ever heard from him, the timbre of it causing vibrations in her stomach.

She edged back from his wrist like if it were a viper, stopping only when she backed into a column. She went around it, wrapping her arms around it, and holding on for dear life.

"Better I offer than you lose control and maul me. Learnt that the hard way. Plus draining me, means the deaths of my family and coven, and an absolute waste of all the energy I've just spent keep us all alive. But probably worse for you is that the wards in this room will fall at my death and you, dear Bonnie, will prowl through this hotel and turn it into a mausoleum."

"I'd never…"

"Yeah, you'd like to think so, but I'm something of an expert at spotting a hungry heretic. And when – not if – you kill me, who knows what's going to happen to _you_ , mmm? You might turn back to a witch. Or you might just get stuck like this for good."

"Stop it. Stop _taunting_ me."

"I'm not taunting you. I'm warning you. Just like I warned you that this would happen and what do you know? I was right then; and I'm right now. You're going to lose it soon."

"I won't…"

"I know you won't. You know why? Because I'm not going to let you. Drink."

His words were almost as tempting as the scent of his blood under his skin, even the dried flecks of it on his face and bare torso. She gripped the column so fiercely that it shrank under her newfound power.

"How long will this last?"

"An hour. _Maybe_ less but not by much. You can't hold out that long."

"You are!" she said, accusingly. But even as she said it, she could see the cracks in his composure. His accelerated heartbeat. His shallow breathing. The way his fists kept clenching, like if he was barely holding himself together. Even the way his voice broke slightly when he spoke. She'd missed the clues before but now, her heightened senses were making her painfully aware of him now.

He was absolutely desperate.

He smiled, and she could see his fangs. "I lived in an empty planet for eighteen years. I have more self-control than anyone alive you probably know. And if you're feeling _half_ the hunger I've felt all this time I've been in this room with you, then you're probably going out of your. fucking. mind. Drink."

"No."

He scoffed, then he lifted his wrist to his mouth.

" _NO_!" She shouted.

Fresh blood flowed out of his skin. The scent of it filled her nostrils – iron, magic _and_ him.

It was in her mouth before she realized she had moved.

She felt the sigh leave his body, heavy, shuddering and she could swear she tasted his triumphant relief in his blood. But she could barely register it, caught up as she was in drinking. His skin was salty, his blood was amazing, liquid electricity flooding her veins. She was holding onto his arm with both hands, all but gnawing through the flesh as she tried to get as much of his blood into her as possible.

The same arm curled her into his body, his long fingers actually gripping her shoulder as his bare chest pressed against her back. His other arm wrapped around her waist, a heavy band that she had no intention of escaping, lifting her so that her bare feet kicked against his legs. He was saying something – asking something – his words coming thick and fast and pleading in a voice so low she felt them echoing in her ribs.

She nodded her permission, partly because she didn't care – not for anything beyond drinking – and partly because the new aching in her core wanted to, desperately wanted to have him drink from her as she drank him.

He tilted her head, and she let him guide her easily, not caring as long as his wrist stayed in her mouth. His fingers trembled slightly as they stroked her hair, and then she felt his lips pressing against her neck. For a moment, he just left them there, as if he was bracing himself. Then with a sigh that made her whole body shudder, his teeth pierced through her skin. Her magic, her blood, was already there waiting for him and when he drew from her, she shuddered, her knees buckling, but not with pain.

His groan was so loud, so close to her skin that she felt like if it was an earthquake. The ground was opening beneath them, and Bonnie let Kai pull her through it, not caring if it swallowed her whole.

* * *

 _June 2014_

It was barely daybreak. Alaric and Jo had been back for an hour, looking smug. Although shortly after, Alaric had rushed to the nursery to check on "the other two women in my life", and Jo had hopped to bed obliviously. Liv was still working in the kitchen ("I'll crash all morning. It's not only vampires that get to have all the fun") and Damon sauntered into the house to find an irate Bonnie in the middle of packing.

Tentatively, he confirmed that he had also received an update on their heretic problem.

"Er… about last night, I stopped at a bank for a drink. And after that, I got-"

"You're an ass, Damon," Bonnie muttered as she stuffed her makeup into her purse.

Damon loitered in the doorway, turning sulky. "Oh come on, it's not like you didn't have enough help. Heard the high and mighty Gemini president himself was around. Isn't it a good thing I wasn't here to get in the way of official witchy business?"

"I thought you were worried about him hurting me? Or do you only pretend to care when it's convenient for you?"

He blinked at her. "Woah! Don't tell me this is just because you changed a few extra diapers yesterday?"

She didn't say anything, just angrily folded her jeans.

He paused. "I told Liv I was sorry, you know." When Bonnie stared at him in confusion, he waggled his brows. "You know… about the whole Luke thing. I apologized properly to her this morning and everything. We're good."

Bonnie had forgotten about that already. On another day, she would have been surprised that Damon himself even remembered, to say nothing of apologizing – but right now, all she could think of was that he was already pissing her off enough as it was.

He fidgeted a little under her glare and said carefully, "And so you asked Kai and he said No. Disappointing, but we always knew there was a chance that would happen. We'll just go back to Plan A – vervain them out."

"Plan A's not going to work."

"Why not?"

"If you were here yesterday, you'd get why," she said through gritted teeth.

He waggled his eyebrows. "Fine. Then we go to Plan B."

"We don't have a Plan B, Damon!"

"I always have a Plan B," he sing-sang. "I just… don't know what it is yet."

Bonnie slammed her box shut and glared at him. "Somebody else died and you're here cracking jokes. Make yourself useful for a change and find out if we can get an early flight out of this town."

"OK, I'm going to let all that slide because you are clearly suffering from PMS right now. Either that," he added as she growled, "or something else happened yesterday between you and the President of the United Covens of Gemini?"

"Get lost."

"Definitely PMS then," he quipped and made himself scarce.

Bonnie directed her glare to the grimoires stacked neatly at the foot of her bed and remembered her conversation with Caroline from the night before. A conversation that had triggered a fitful sleep filled with dreams of things best forgotten.

 _"…if you and Kai worked out your issues with each other…"_

The night before she had been one crying baby away from doing something that was at best very stupid and at worst very dangerous. And now…

Suddenly weak-kneed, she sat down on the bed.

Damon did not have a Plan B. But she did, didn't she?

A mental bell rang in her head, its peal deep and ominous.

* * *

 _June 2013_

Bonnie rang the doorbell and waited.

It was a few hours before the wedding and she had jumped at the chance to run the errand and escape the bride's camp. At first it had been nice to have her friends hover over her so solicitously, but after a while it had put her on edge. So last night's bachelorette party had ended with her spending the night in the ICU. That was a day in the life of Bonnie Bennett.

It was not like if she had actually died.

Alaric answered the door. He looked exactly the same, right down to the facial hair that wasn't sure whether it wanted to be clean-shaven or a beard.

Bonnie brought up a mental image of Jo that morning in the middle of hair stylists, pedicurists and the makeup expert that Caroline insisted needed to be there.

The men had it so easy.

"Here you go." She pushed the box into his hands. "Your cravat."

His face reddened. "Oh my god, I was supposed to pick this up yesterday."

"I know. Or rather, Caroline knew. The person that doesn't know is Jo. So you owe us big time." She crinkled her nose.

He laughed. "I'll remember."

She peered around the room. A few beers were on the table, and what appeared to be a ring box. Other than that, it didn't look like the house of someone who was about to change status or make any other major life-changing decisions.

"Should you be up and about after last night?" he asked.

Bonnie sighed. "Don't take this the wrong way but I'm really tired of telling people that I'm fine. Is Matt around?" she asked quickly, both to get to the task at hand and to stop him from poking. "We're supposed to pick up the flowers together, some hitch with the floral contractor." She also had another errand in mind, a thought that had taken shape in her mind as she drove here, but she didn't feel the need to share that with Alaric.

"He just stepped out with Tyler for some…" Alaric coughed. "Refreshments."

 _More beers, you mean_ , Bonnie thought while keeping her face as straight as possible.

"He'll be back soon. You wanna wait?"

"I guess," she said, a little uncomfortable now. She and Alaric hadn't really had much to say to each other since she came back.

He nodded and made a show of tidying up a little while she perched at the edge of the sofa. He came to sit across from her, still holding the cravat box in his hands.

"Thank you, Bonnie."

She smiled. "No biggie. I was coming to get Matt and the flowers, anyway."

"Not for this," he chuckled, then coughed a little. He looked both serious and nervous.

Bonnie shifted, guilt and confusion seeping through her. "If it's about going back for Kai, I only did what I had to do. You don't need to thank me."

"Oh god," he whispered. "I have to thank you for that, too." He slapped his forehead and his shoulders shook slightly.

How much exactly had he had to drink? "Alaric, is everything OK?"

"Everything's great, Bonnie!" he said, still chuckling. Yeah, he definitely had had one too many. "Everything's fine. And it's because of you."

She looked at him in surprise.

"I… I was dead, Bonnie. I died. But you brought me back. You were in pain, you were dying but you still tried to bring everyone back. Jeremy said, you saved everyone but yourself. You didn't have to. You could have lived a little longer if you hadn't. But you brought me back to life. I found Jo. I _have_ Jo. We're going to have kids. Can you imagine me, a Dad?"

Bonnie nodded, swallowing against the lump in her throat. She could actually. She could imagine it very well.

"I got a second chance at _life_ , Bonnie. How many people can say that? And it's all because of you." His eyes were shining.

"I…" She swallowed again. "I don't know what to say."

"Now, I also have to thank you for saving my horrible brother-in-law and keeping Jo and my children alive. When I think about when Damon asked me-" He made a face and wiped his eyes. "When Jo told me what happened yesterday, how close we all came to losing you. _Again_."

"I think everyone's getting a little carried away over what happened last night," Bonnie muttered, slightly mortified.

Alaric continued like if he hadn't heard her. "I owe you, Bonnie. Anytime. Anyday. Anything. OK? Remember that."

"You don't owe me anything," she whispered. Her heart was actually aching a little bit.

Alaric shook his head, wiped his face again.

Right on time, the door opened and she heard Matt's and Tyler's voices. "We got the beers. We got the good stuff. We got- _Bonnie_!" Their garbled song ended with a high-pitched exclamation point.

Before they caught sight of her, they had been waving two six-packs like pom-poms. Bonnie relieved them both of their burden.

"You guys, I think Alaric's had enough. If you don't want Jo… No, if you don't want _Caroline_ to come here and whoop all your asses, you'd better start brewing some coffee. STAT. Not you, Matt, you're coming with me." She peered into Matt's slightly hazy blue eyes. "Are you sober enough to drive?"

He and Tyler exchanged scoffing glances. "I got us back here, didntcha?" He boomed into Bonnie's face, smelly breath and all.

Bonnie nearly gagged. "We're going to stop at the local Starbucks." She started dragging him along.

She caught a glimpse of Alaric's face staring at her and she smiled back tentatively, her heart so full she almost couldn't breathe.

"Come on, Bonnie. Just one beer," Tyler whined as she slammed the door behind them.

It took two coffees and one stop at the flower shop, but Bonnie was recovered enough from the weight of feeling that Alaric's unexpected gratitude had filled within her; and Matt was sober enough, for her to tell him what was on her mind.

"Visions about Kai, Lily and the heretics?"

Bonnie shrugged. In the warm, clear light of daytime, it all sounded a bit melodramatic.

But when was the last time her life _wasn't_ ever melodramatic?

"Sometimes all of them – Kai, the one with red hair, the big blond. Sometimes it's just the heretics. Sometimes, it's just Lily. Sometimes… it's just Kai."

The dreams that only featured Kai tended to be slightly different from the rest. Bonnie felt her face heating up and pretended to stare at something out her window as they drove back to the event.

"If it's been going on since you got back from 1903, maybe you were having premonitions of Lily trying to kill you? But Lily's gone now," Matt said. Then he made a scoffing sound. "I still can't believe Damon and Stefan just let Kai send her back to the Prison World."

"She abandoned them. She had found a new family. She tried to sabotage his relationship with Elena," Bonnie hesitated. "She attacked me." And even now, the last filled her with more surprise than gratitude.

The events of the night before were still so hazy. She had woken in the hospital with Elena's tear-streaked face hovering over her, then her friend hugging her so tight she swore her bones had bent a little. Even Jo had been spooked, acting as if Bonnie had _died_.

Bonnie shook the thought away. Her days of dying were far behind her.

Matt gave her a concerned look. "So if your dreams warned you about Lily, you think they're still warning you about something else, right? You think the heretics are going to get out? That Kai's going to get them out?"

"He has the Ascendant."

"But you said that you _rescued_ him from the heretics. Why would he try to get them out? Why bother sending Lily back if he's just going to release her family?"

Bonnie rubbed her hands on her face. "I don't know, Matt. I just don't trust him, you know? I'm just waiting for him to do something to pay me back…" She bit her lip and felt her heart tighten again, this time for a completely different reason.

She hadn't seen Josette's knife since 1903. By the time she had noticed it gone, Kai had left her, and anyway, Bonnie had far more pressing matters to worry about. But since then, every once in a while, her mind would go to the knife. Had it dropped into the snow in 1903? Or had Kai taken it?

He had stabbed her first with the knife in 1994.

She had stabbed him next with it in 1903.

 _Tag, Bonnie. You're It._

She clasped her sudden shaking fingers together. "I'm just waiting for him to pay me back," she repeated.

Matt nodded. Then he hit the brakes, and turned the car in a U-turn so abruptly that Bonnie rocked into her door.

"What the-?"

"He lives in an apartment off town." At Bonnie's inquiring glance, he added, "Some of their people are crashing there. I think the kid is in Jo's train. The local hotels are packed with Gemini so Alaric and I had to arrange lodgings for the extras."

 _That sounds awkward_ , Bonnie thought. Although, she also thought, that was not quite as awkward as Jo sending out wedding invitations to the brother that carved out her spleen or the father that tried to murder her.

"If the 1903 Ascendant is there, do you think you can locate it?"

"I think so. Matt, you're helping me with this? You believe me?"

"If Bonnie Bennett has a hunch, I'm not going to be the fool that ignores it."

A warm feeling blossomed in her heart and the two of them exchanged smiles. Matt's truck bumped along the road, racing against time.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Jo snored. She always had but Kai didn't remember it being this loud, or this annoying. He rubbed the skin of his wrist under the black leather strap as he waited for the infernal racket to end while the tension in his head and in his heart stretched taut.

After a good fifteen minutes, he twiddled his fingers and sent his sister the magical equivalent of a good hard shove.

She woke with a jerk and looked around, her eyes wild. He looked over guilelessly from where he sat by the window and waved at her with his fingers.

"Finally, you're awake. Long past the time most respectable people are up and about." There was a lot more bite in his voice than probably needed to be. He was here after all, to ask for her help. But it had been a bad night – no, a bad couple of days – actually, a bad couple of weeks – or maybe just a bad year…

Long and short of it was that Kai wasn't in the mood to play nice with anyone that day.

Jo slumped back, with a sigh.

"I don't know what is sadder," she said tiredly, rubbing her eyes. "The fact that your face is the first one I see this morning or that I'm so used to your complete disregard of boundaries that I can't even work myself up to be annoyed."

"Good morning to you too, Sissy," he answered with fake cheer. "Also, you still snore."

That got her attention. "I do not."

"Alaric is a better man than I ever gave him credit for," he continued, blithely.

She spared him one frosty glare before her gaze morphed into concern. "What's wrong? You didn't wake me up this morning to talk about the Brooklyn situation or the dragon cults or the quandary with the Nine Covens or any of the other stuff you've been dealing with this month so why are you here?"

He never could put anything past her for long.

"To see my favourite sister," he said dryly, turning to stare blindly out of the window. The only thing he could see was _her_ green eyes, staring up at him accusingly. "Why else?"

"Whatever it is, spit it out so I can get some sleep. Gab is in this morning and I had big plans for my sleep cycle."

"How's the old biddy?" Kai queried, genuinely interested. It had been a while since he bumped into Gab, the old woman who had practically raised him and Jo while their parents were busy running the coven. She'd been away for her brother's funeral.

"Still gaga. Half the time she talks as if he's still alive."

Kai squirmed with guilt and worry. "Maybe, it's time you…"

At Jo's glare, he fell silent. They both knew full well why Jo couldn't trust anyone else with the care of the girls.

"Gab's _fine._ She's great with the twins and most importantly, she lets me sleep in. Which is more than I can say for other people in this room. So next time, use the door. Praetor or not, you don't have the right to port into my bedroom. There are boundaries."

"Says the woman who let a vampire into a house with two babies."

"The house is vamp proofed to my eyeballs. He's practically human inside here. Besides, Damon doesn't eat babies. That I know of."

Kai grimaced. Clearly his sister didn't know about the 'worst day' of Damon's life during which he ate a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Alaric clearly didn't know either or he'd have told Jo. His sister and her husband were thick as thieves.

It was disgusting, really.

Kai and the vampire were not friends – and he'd never trust Damon as an ally again but he knew what it was to live under the shadow of one's past. As long as he was confident of his family's safety – and he was – and until Damon gave him cause to, Kai would keep the murder of the Salvatore relation's wife and child to himself.

Of course, the moment their visitors from Mystic Falls left, Kai was going to personally cast the enchantments that revoked the vampire's permission into the house.

Visitor _s_.

The pain behind his ribs worsened.

But all he said now was, "well, your vampire babysitter skipped on you last night. I got here just in time. So you're welcome, Sissy."

"Now, that's a sight I'd have almost given up my night to see. You, Bonnie and babies."

He couldn't help it. He flinched.

There was a pause. He could feel Jo's guilty gaze on his face and he looked away. In the far distance, he could 'hear' the activities of the other witches in the house, his senses specifically attuned to Liv's, to Gab the nanny, and even the little twins in the nursery. They were all Gemini witches after all, and all their magic answered to him.

Then his basic witch senses picked up on the vampire in the study; and something even deeper, something that had been within him long before he had magic, connected to the non-Gemini witch in her bedroom.

Bonnie.

Black hair shining under the faint kitchen light. Green eyes flashing at him. That cupid's bow mouth, full and soft and curved with spite as she threw words at him like hexes. It had been a month since he had seen her last – although she probably thought it was a year – and still the reality of her was a shock to his senses.

She was flitting through the house now. Awake. Alert. Annoyed.

If Bonnie's aura was a flame, then Kai was the moth that wanted to fly to her and be burnt.

Again.

"They're not leaving until late evening," Jo said quietly, and he could hear the unspoken apology in her voice. "That's plenty of time for conversations… maybe more?"

"Good for them. Excellent weather for flying. Clear skies," he answered blithely.

"Kai…"

He gave her a warning glance and brusquely changed the subject. "And while we're on the topic of Mystic Falls and its usual drama, guess who got themselves killed last night?"

He told her.

That got her back on track. She sat up, her eyes widening. "Oh no, that poor family."

He looked away, grimacing as frustrated remorse smote through him. "Yeah. Someone needs to find out which Elder broke a cursed mirror."

"And that's three now, right? The Briggs. Now Judith Stewart…"

"Yep. Three of the coven witches that went into self-imposed exile the moment I became leader are now dead."

"By the hands of the heretics you released."

Kai threw her a furtive glance. "Not exactly how that went down, Jo."

"That won't matter to a lot of witches."

"What do _you_ think?" he shot back at his sister.

She hesitated. He could practically see the gears turning in her head. "I don't think you had anything to do with this, Kai."

He didn't realize until Jo said it and he sighed, that he was holding his breath. He looked away so that she won't see the gratitude that had threatened to overwhelm him.

For someone who had lived most of his life, natural and unnatural, without emotions, the maelstrom that had overcome him after the Merge had almost driven him mad. The spiralling events that had followed shortly had not helped, coming near to almost completely pushing him over the edge. Even now, a year after everything, he still had nightmares about what depths he might have sunk to if things had gone just a little bit differently.

As it was, he already had more than enough on his conscience. The guilt and grief at the lives he had ruined and taken would always remain with him, but none more so than those of his own siblings.

He had sought help in his own way – the Internet, various self-help books, even the short-lived stint with a god-to-honest psychiatrist on Jo's insistence. They all said more or less the same thing – time would heal the sharper, more crippling emotions, but they would never entirely leave him; he would always carry the burden of guilt within him, and the best he could do was to redirect it positively and make the rest of his miserable existence worthwhile to others. Most importantly, it was imperative that he asked for forgiveness from the survivors of his malice – but he should not expect it because he had no right to it; could never do enough to earn it; and should resign himself to the possibility that as desperately as he would want it, he would never get it.

So that was why, even after all this time, the reminder of Jo's forgiveness, Jo's acceptance, Jo's _loyalty_ to him still had the power to stun him.

He had to clear his throat before he could speak. "Well, thanks for the vote of confidence," he said in a weak attempt at lightness.

Jo looked at him in a way that made it very clear he wasn't fooling her for a minute. But she let it slide, and got back to the problem at hand. "Well, no matter their loyalty or lack of it to you, that's three dead Gemini witches. The Council's going to have to change their tune now."

"You'd think that, right? I got the news a few hours ago. I summoned an emergency Council right away-"

"Wait, what - you ported Council members out of their beds?" She was gawking at him.

"You heard when I said _emergency_ right?"

She laughed incredulously. "I'm sure they loved that."

"Apparently not. They were more bugged about that than about Judith Stewart's death. It certainly didn't make much difference to them." He got to his feet, started pacing the untidy bedroom. "No dice, Jo. Still no."

"What? No way."

"The usual bull. Witches die all the time. Witches who separate from their covens die even more easily than others. The heretics are content to stay in Mystic Falls. The town is sort-of equipped to manage them, and seems to have a handle on them. Nothing about the situation warrants our interference. Yadda yadda yadda. Let's leave well enough alone. Now since we're all here, we might as well talk about that empty Council seat. Cue bickering."

"I can't believe it. They chose to do _nothing at all_?"

"OK, maybe not absolutely nothing. Exile or not, Judith still hailed from one of our oldest houses. There's Bethany to consider, too. So Councilman Parkinson will be going on an all-expenses paid trip to Virginia to 'observe' the goings on. That was the fall-out of the emergency meeting."

He kicked the leg of a table in frustration.

Jo cringed. "The Council has no objectivity where the heretics are concerned. They'd bury their heads in the sand until the heretics burnt their way across the country to Portland. Then the same Council will turn around and point their fingers at you," she warned.

"Yeah, I thought of that," he said. "Some were there the night of your Red Wedding. What they saw clearly scared religion into them. I'd overrule them in a moment and hightail it back to Mystic Falls. I wanted to a month ago when those vermin turned up like a couple of bad pennies."

"So why haven't you?" she prodded.

He stopped pacing and gave his sister a piercing look. "Because that would be missing the bigger picture. The question isn't _why_ the heretics are back, it's _how_. How do you think that happened, mmm? Because I was damn sure that we rounded up all those freakshows that night before I executed them. How the hell do you think two of them managed to escape?"

* * *

 _June 2013_

 _What do you think, Malachai? Was it worth it?_

Jo's Red Wedding ended in a gigantic barbeque. A group of young witches stood at the edge of the huge bonfire, hooting and casting unnecessary _fiendfyre_ spells as the flames rose impossibly higher and higher, un-impacted by the torrential downpour.

But most of the Gemini still standing were consumed with more useful pursuits. The shattered Western portal had been repaired, and the wounded were being carried through. There were deep ditches in the ground where hell-hole spells had been cast, and a group of Envoys moved from one to the other, sealing them back with careful, painstaking magic. Other Envoys were moved across the field, finding and neutralizing any lingering effects of malicious hexes that still remained. But they could only do so much. The auras of witches who had lost their lives, the potency of the magic that had been cast here, and the sheer violence of the past few hours, would linger over these grounds and mark them cursed for decades, if not centuries.

Most of the Councilmen and Elders had already left, but a few remained, and those stood with Joshua Parker, having a slow conversation. There was no time for a formal meeting but already questions were being raised and some form of answers needed to be given before harmful rumors could be allowed to take life.

The Praetor himself should have been part of this group, or at least taken an active role in organizing the Envoys and the other helpers in their work, but it was his family that took his place. Joshua dealt with the leaders, and Liv Parker had helped to set up the Portal. Now, after giving instructions to the Envoys, she worked with the witches who were collecting the dead.

All this while, Kai Parker stayed apart from the rest of his coven. Scant meters from the flames, closer even than the boisterous young witches dared, he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, tall and silent in the rain, his form highlighted by the bonfire that he gazed unseeingly into. A few people had met him earlier – touched his shoulder, murmured thanks – but his curt one-word, and eventually non-answers – had rebuffed them. Now, glances flitted to him, as questions were murmured behind his back. But everyone gave him a wide berth.

"So you were right and we were wrong, yet again, Joshua," Tony Ghiacci, fellow Councilor to the former Praetor told Joshua as they stood in the rain and watched as a fiery ditch slowly closed before their eyes.

Joshua's voice was grave. "Your concerns were not unjustified."

"Justified and timely. The failsafe might have come in useful earlier this night," Bethany Stewart said, her eyes sharp and accusing on Joshua.

"The failsafe," Valerie Hildegard said sharply, "was the reason why we didn't complete the _Redimio_ [1] and we almost lost the coven this night."

Joshua sighed. "We were all caught unawares."

"And in the end, we didn't need it. The siphoner – the _Praetor –_ saw to that," Tony interjected, his voice now tinged with amazement. "I never knew a heretic could be killed in such a way."

"It has always been theoretically possible. There were studies many centuries ago," Joshua replied, his voice distant.

"I'm more interested in why those heretics were free in the first place," Bethany Stewart persisted, her voice cold as she glanced now at the bonfire and the man that stood alone before it, then turned back to Joshua. "There will be an inquiry. Too many people died."

Joshua bowed his head. "I am sorry about your son."

"His wife, too. My grand-daughter is an orphan now."

There were cries and murmurs of sympathy. One loss was expected - theirs was a dangerous life. But two from one family in the space of one night? That was indeed a tragedy.

Bethany waved them off. "I don't want commiseration. I want answers."

She would obviously have said more, but her old friend, Parvathi Abbott took her elbow. "Come, Betty, we can do more on the other side of the Portal." The two women drifted away.

The others watched her leave. "Betty won't leave this be," Mark McGordon said.

Joshua's response was curt. "She shouldn't."

They said very little after that. At least nothing that was of any importance to Kai where he listened with his newfound supernatural hearing. His composure was a mask, inside he was burning as furiously as the _fiendfyre_ before him, the ruination of magical essence from more souls than he had ever absorbed at once running through his veins like fire. He was fast realizing that the spells that he had cast on himself to ride this through were not going to be enough. Neither were his Sanskrit rings, which were supposed to share some of the burden. Now they were pushing back power on him, feeding into a vicious magical cycle that would soon send him to his knees – or drive him mad.

It would be the ultimate irony, he thought, if he ended up either dying or turning into the same thing he had just saved his coven from.

He could have gone long ago, but he wanted, perversely, to watch the last of the heretics fall into ashes. Maybe then, the satisfaction that he was expecting from all this, would finally come.

So he stayed. And he waited. Long after the _fiendfyre_ was empty and turned on itself, long after the crowd had thinned to a handful, he was still waiting. It didn't come. That sense of victory, of vindication. Instead what came was an emotion that Kai would gladly have exorcised from his soul, but one that he had become horrifyingly familiar with since the Merge:

Guilt.

His eyes weren't only burning because of the smoke from the flames, or the warring of auras clashing inside him.

 _Was it worth it, Malachai?_

The question wasn't _his_ , Kai thought furiously. The guilt wasn't _his_. It was Luke's. That and his inability to enjoy this moment. Apparently, even the simple pleasure of getting even, was something he was going to have to learn to live without. Not for the first time, Kai wondered who had really won the Merge.

Another tremor smote him, and he staggered where he stood. He felt eyes turn to him immediately. They were all watching, he knew. All whispering, all wondering. Even after everything that happened today. They probably always will.

 _Are they wrong?_

 _Shut up, Luke_. He said tiredly.

In the flames, he could see the heart-shaped face of little Judi Stewart. He had glimpsed her at the ceremony. She and her Ghiacci friend had been disproportionately smug at being chosen to be in Josette Parker's train.

Now, she was an orphan.

Douglas Parkinson, one of the envoys, said to Kai's sister. "Portal will soon close, Olivia. We need to round up the rest."

"Who's left?"

"A few councilors. The Pr-er, I mean your father _and_ the Praetor."

"Get my Dad." There was a pause as she walked from the other side of the field to him. Liv's question was hesitant, diffident in a way that she had never sounded to him before. "Kai, are you coming?"

"No," he growled.

She hesitated. "Are you OK?"

He didn't answer.

Her heartrate, already loud and pounding, increased slightly; and he was so grateful that at least, he could still tick off Livvie-poo.

"Suit yourself."

He heard his father say something about staying with him, but Liv managed to dissuade him. Then they were finally leaving. Joshua was last, his eyes lingering on his son for a long moment as he stood in the Portal. Then he, too, was gone. Moments later, the Portal collapsed.

Kai ended the _fiendfyre_ spell. The smoke cleared at once, and nothing, not even ashes, remained of the six heretics.

Well not nothing. The ghosts of the dead Gemini witches remained. As well as Kai's own guilt.

He unclasped his hands, and curled his fingers to make the portation spell. Magic flowed through him at once – too easily. He closed his eyes and his body shook with pleasure at the rush of it. It was like the overwhelming excess of the Traveler's spell all over. It occurred to him – because he was a siphoner and by his very nature, he would always revel in magic – that he could probably learn to control this power, with time. But he rejected the thought almost before it was completed. The cost was too high.

The rain disappeared as he ported.

* * *

[1] Coronation/Swearing-In/Binding of the new Gemini Leader

* * *

 **A/N (AUG-12-'15)** : I am really sorry it's taken me this long to update. Thank you to everyone that dropped a review, said what you liked and what could be better. The reviews were so encouraging and kept me writing even when I had to re-do a chapter three times! I appreciated every one of your comments. I know where this story is going to (spoiler: rocks fall and everyone dies ;) :) ) but how we'll get there is still literally a work-in-progress so feel free to give me your thoughts and opinions. Also, let me know when it gets too flashback heavy. As much as I enjoy delving into the past, there's a lot that's yet to happen in the future too!

And BIG THANKS to my dear betas _thenameismaynard_ and _magicsuckcr_! I hope everyone is reading _By and Down by keenan24_ here or any of _killerwarlock at tumblr's RPs_ , or you are sorely depriving yourselves. These guys are the best - and they're the reason why you didn't run screaming from all my typos and grammos.

Finally, this chapter was hella long so I split it into 2. Right in the middle of Kai's and Jo's conversation. Kai gets long-winded, apparently. I hope it doesn't end too abruptly. The next chapter starts pretty much from where this one takes off.

Keep the BonKai flag flying!


	6. 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

* * *

 _June 2013_

The last thing Kai saw before he ported from the cool hotel suite was Bonnie's irate face. So it was only appropriate that the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes to the scorching, deafening and bloody chaos that was his sister's wedding was his father's livid one.

The night kept bearing gifts.

"What the hell are you doing?" Joshua Parker shouted. His eyes were filled with horror.

Kai cracked his neck, held himself back from ramming his fist into his father's face on sheer principle. "I took a detour fixing a problem I asked _you_ to deal with. What did I miss?"

His eyes were already sliding from his father, barely taking in the tapestry of magical violence spread before him, as he sought out the glimmering rings of the Portal. He spotted it almost at once, its glow lighting up the Southern boundary. Before it, he could make out a line of witches throwing hexes at a heretic that was repeatedly charging towards them, apparently trying to breach the Portal.

He had barely registered all this when a scream burst out from somewhere beside him. He and Joshua turned to see a witch fly across the hall, followed immediately by a creature in red. Kai threw out his magic, in tandem with his father and the heretic froze, then shattered into pieces.

"That'll buy some time," Joshua muttered then he turned to Kai and grabbed his sleeve. "Get out of here."

Kai tried to take his arm back but his father held firm. "What the hell, Joshua?" he spat. "You don't give me orders."

"Where did I hear that before?" Joshua said irritably. "I don't have time to deal with your ego, Kai. Leave."

"So you can take all the glory and I live the rest of my days as the Praetor That Ran? No, thanks, _Dad_." He snorted. "What's the plan? Wait for me to scram, save the day and make me look bad? I'd bet good money you're carrying an Ascendant on you." He hooked his fingers in preparation for a summoning spell.

Joshua blocked it. "You foolish boy. _You_ destroyed the 1903 Prison when you let these things out."

Kai reeled. "I… I d-"

"You might as well have! What possessed you to free the ripper?"

Not what, who. But of course, Kai wasn't going to tell his father that. Or tell his father anything at all.

Not that Joshua was waiting for an answer; he was in full rant mode. "It would take months to build a new Prison to hold six heretics, and we'd have to trap them first. And as for _glory_?" he spat. "Look around you, Malachai!"

Kai did. Saw the glass littering the ground, the flames, the blood, the twisted knots of smoke hovering in the air that indicated spot-sites of magical duels – light against dark.

The bodies.

So many bodies.

And not one wore a red robe.

Even the creature they had just obliterated had vanished, probably re-awakening somewhere in the ether.

Kai fought back a wave of nausea – and guilt. Despite the still ambivalent feelings he held for a lot of the members of his coven, he hadn't wanted _this_.

"Do you see?" Joshua said bleakly. " _We're losing._ We've ported out the young, the old, the sick. Now we're moving teenagers, the injured, those too weak to any longer. The rest of us will hold the line until they are through. Then we shut down the portals. This is not a battle. This is a massacre. Now get out."

"I'm the most powerful person here and you're asking me to run?" Kai asked incredulously.

"You're holding the lives of every single Gemini witch in your unworthy hands and I'm asking you to _live_."

Kai finally yanked his arm back. "I'm going to do more than that. I'm going to win."

"Kai-"

"See those party crashers in red? I've a good reason to think that I'm the only one who's qualified to bounce them. Besides," buried fury lashed in his belly, "they welcomed me with open arms in 1903. I'd like to return the favor. Sorry to ruin your last stand, Dad." He shouldered his father out of the way and jumped into the fray.

A pair of older witches ran past him, chased down by a red figure. He shot out a spear of power at it.

The woman's red hood fell back and her long curls streamed behind her. Its tips lit up with flames that propagated along the length of her hair. She died screaming but Kai didn't stay to enjoy the sight. He was racing south as fast as he could, towards the shimmering glow of the Portal, stopping now and then to lend a magical hand to any skirmish that crossed his path.

He finally made it within yards of the Portal, and now he could make out his own Livvie Poo, clearly in charge of the quartet of young envoys that guarded the Portal. She threw vicious hexes that made Kai proud but the scarred heretic before her, just bounced them back lazily, even though it could probably have easily taken down at least two witches. Kai hesitated, cloaked in the shadows, wondering what the ploy was.

Finally, one of Livvie's hexes snuck past the heretic's reflexes and the creature staggered back, choking – then charged forward with an angry snarl, flinging out a curse that would have killed off half of Kai's living siblings. He threw out a hand quickly to block it – but someone was faster. The werewolf that he had not even noticed until then – launched itself onto the heretic, the curse catching on, and bouncing harmlessly from its immune body. The wolf buried its jaws into the heretic's neck and both went crashing on the ground.

All eyes were on the macabre sight before then – and that was when the second heretic, clearly bidding its time all this while, charged.

Two envoys were on the ground before Kai could react. It reached for Livvie next – and his sister was still standing, frozen, too shocked or too slow to reach – when Kai sent a wave of power at it. It screamed as its skin tore, revealing blood and black magic, swelling obscenely until it exploded. Pieces of heretic fell to the ground. Livvie jumped out of the way with a yelp of disgust. It was only then that she looked around at her fallen friends and she let out a low gasp.

Her eyes met her brother's as the wolf padded back to her with its bloody jaws.

"Go," Kai said hoarsely. "Set up another Portal for the injured to the North. I have need for this one."

She didn't argue. Without looking back, she left, leading the surviving envoy and her wolf with her.

He ran up to the Portal, to the very edge where the magic threatened to pull him inside. Raising his arms up, he started chanting, channeling its power and transforming it at the same time. The rings on his fingers burnt as the rings of the Portal turned from their silvery blue glow to a dark, red blaze.

His arms were sore when he lowered them, but that was a small price to pay. The magic was already settling in the Portal. For the first time that evening, _finally_ something was going his way.

He heard the whistle of a hex aimed at the center of his skull in the nick of time. He dodged it, and it shot into the Portal, turning the rings black for a moment, before they blazed back red.

He swirled to face the two that were materializing before him.

" _Malachai_ ," snarled the peroxide-blond reject that Kai had 'affectionately' named Iceman.

"Nice to see you too," Kai snarled back and threw lethal hexes from both hands in rapid succession. Iceman dodged the strike and the spell smashed into the ground, opening up a crater beside the heretics. The second heretic – Gingerdum – absorbed the magic with one hand and returned fire with the other hand. Kai flung out a shield but it went up a tad too late, and the edge of the hex struck just above his brow. Blood spilled into his eye, half-blinding him.

He staggered a little, blinking rapidly, but his shield was still up and the barrage of hexes that both attackers were sending merely smashed against it.

" _You will perish for your treachery_ ," Gingerdum was ranting.

"You have no idea what that word means, do you?" Kai muttered.

He was curling his right hand into the shape for a bone-crusher, preparing for the pause to drop his shield and strike.

The moment came and he had the satisfaction of hearing bones snap and crackle. Another hex and he had shoved them both into the crater and yet another sealed them in.

He smiled. _This can still work_ , he thought, as flexed his fingers, rings glittering in the light of flames and spells as he channelled his power...

And something flung itself on his back and sank its teeth into his neck.

* * *

 _June 2014_

"I was damn sure that we rounded up all those freakshows that night and then I sent their black souls into Oblivion. How the hell do you think two of them escaped?"

More to his frustration than to his surprise, Jo shook her head. "Don't be paranoid, Kai. No one in this coven would have helped any one of those heretics then or any other time."

"Your faith in our backstabbing little serfdom never ceases to touch my ugly black heart," he declared.

"You keep calling them serfs and very soon you're going to have a revolution on your hands. How many times do I need to tell you: the Praetor is only as strong as the witches' loyalty to him?"

"I play nice with the other kids, Jo," he exclaimed in protest. "I give the old fossils in the Council my ear all the time. It's hard to believe it, but when they put aside their petty politicking, they actually give good advice. Yes, that happens once in a blue moon but you never know when, right? Besides, when I'm too busy getting stuff done to hold their hands and make them feel important, that's what Dad's there for."

Of course, Jo couldn't counter that because it was true. Like many others, she had probably thought it was a phenomenally bad idea for Kai to give Joshua Parker a seat in the Gemini Council but that move ended up being a stroke of brilliance, if Kai said so himself. It had turned his father from being Kai's biggest enemy and a rallying point for the witches seeking to flee the coven – to becoming his staunchest supporter and his unofficial liaison with the rest of the Council. And when Joshua Parker vouched for him, a lot of the witches who had gone into exodus when Kai became leader came back in droves.

It amused Kai that his sister could still be so surprised at how well he did politics. In his pre-merge life, he had pretty much survived by learning, imitating and manipulating the emotions and inclinations that came so naturally to everyone but himself. A year of figuring out how to get a handle on _his_ own emotions hadn't made him lose his old talents. If anything, they had come in handy in figuring out his own head.

Particularly where a certain black-haired witch was concerned.

Kai clamped down on that line of thought before it derailed him.

"You'd get on better with the Council if you just tried to be a little bit less… you sometimes," Jo said with the voice of a woman who had given this advice repeatedly and was exhausted. "But back to the point: if you think one of us rescued the heretics to … I dunno… pull them out of their sleeves like Jokers a year later to lure you to Mystic Falls and kill you, you're… You're being more than paranoid, Kai. You're being flat out ridiculous. Why would anyone in the Gemini coven want to kill their leader?"

"I could be the nicest Praetor in the world and there'd still be someone who wants to play game of magical thrones with me. Maybe someone lost a bet on how many bodies I'd drop in my first one hundred days in office and is looking to get even?" At Jo's look of outrage, he chuckled humorlessly. "Sorry. Too soon."

But still, someone somewhere had to be disappointed that the forebodings had not come to past. That the mad man hadn't burnt the coven to ashes. That he hadn't murdered his father, gutted his pregnant sister, ripped into shreds everyone that opposed him and drank the blood of their children.

Instead, he had, against all odds, saved all their asses. And thanks to a series of hard lessons early on in his reign, he had got his head on straight about just what it meant to be Praetor. And he had thrown himself into it.

Perhaps he had thrown himself into it a bit too much.

"Think the Ghiaccis or the Lovegoods could be behind this?" He asked Jo now.

Those two families were some of the nastier elements in the coven, previously considered untouchable and allowed to indulge in forbidden arts unchecked for generations. A member of each of those houses had sat on the Council for centuries, the last being Anthony Ghiacci and Padma Lovegood, whose duties had concluded a few months into Kai's reign. One of his first 'official' acts when he returned to Portland was to evoke a privilege that Praetors rarely exercised – and forcibly retired two serving Council members. Then he had proceeded to lay down the law on both houses. Most of the witches had watched in anticipation of a rebellion or even self-imposed exile. But the Ghiaccis and Lovegoods had toed the line. Perhaps all they had needed was a Praetor strong enough – or crazy enough – to bend them to his will.

It was just one more of Kai's actions as coven leader that inspired an interesting mix of approval, outrage and outright fear from the other witch families.

"Powers or no powers, their lives are still linked to yours," Jo countered. "I would suggest looking outwards – at some of our newer allies that you brought in by force. But in all honesty, I can't imagine a pack of wolves or a swarm of faeries or any of the other covens having any kind of influence over these heretics."

Kai nodded in grim agreement. A few months back, he had used his scheming talents to repair old alliances with other supernatural elements, alliances that had been broken or forgotten because of his coven's paranoia. The Council had not liked the fact that the new Praetor was more likely to cut a deal with a werewolf clan than to cut off their heads. But they couldn't deny that he got more results his way. And when those had failed...

Well, he was mega-powerful and that streak of violence in him had been tamed, not erased.

Jo had told Kai once that the Council thought he was impulsive and he had laughed out loud at that. The truth was that he was a stickler for their protocol, and always took counsel before making a decision. He meant what he said – some of the advice the Council and the Elders gave _were_ worthwhile. He was as likely to go along with a recommendation as to go against it.

Their real beef, he suspected, was that he didn't drag his feet long enough for them to catch up with him. He made up his mind as quickly as possible, and stuck to his guns. Councils, elders and petty factions be damned.

They had got too used to his father. Joshua had been formidable once upon a time, but he had had to be Praetor far longer than was normal – and his leadership had become overly cautious, even by Gemini standards, as a reflection of that. Over the past two decades, he had filled his Council with like-minded witches and now they were struggling to keep up with his son.

Jo sometimes told Kai that the witches whispered that the new Praetor was more ruthless than the former one had been in his prime. He considered it a compliment.

"What does Dad think?"

Kai bit back a groan. Of course, _Sissy_ was going to pick up on his thoughts and start the discussion at a tangent that was not only furthest from his mind but completely in contradiction to it.

He had had eighteen years to forget what that felt like – growing up with someone who thought exactly like you but in the polar opposite direction.

But he had been reminded shortly after her children were born, when Jo had faced down the coven for her twins.

Although Kai had killed the debate eventually, Jo had gone from the wary indifference to coven affairs she had had when she first moved to Portland, to taking a more active interest. Powers or no powers, Jo Saltzman was still the sister to the current Praetor, the mother of the coven's heirs, and the daughter of the most influential wizard on the Council. Only an ostrich would fail to realize that she had a big stake in all things Gemini; and Jo wasn't that.

So she had started increasingly voicing her opinions to her twin brother and in return, Kai had gradually taken her more and more into his confidence. Being able to bounce off problems against a brain that worked like his had proven invaluable. Over time, she had become his informal counsellor / sounding board and the one person in the coven that he trusted absolutely.

Still, there were times when their differences in some fundamental ideologies left him wanting to tear his hair out.

Like now.

"Our father gave his recommendation with the rest of the Council," he answered shortly.

She rolled her eyes. "I meant one on one. After the Council meeting."

"He didn't stick around to chat." He barely reined in the flare of anger at the disappointment on his sister's face. "We've had this conversation before, Jo. I know this makes me a big fat hypocrite but Father and I are never going to repair the father-son bond we never had. We share an overwhelming interest in the welfare of the coven. Other than that, we don't have anything to say to each other and we both like it that way."

"I wonder why," she said sadly. "You guys are more alike than you think."

Now that made him laugh. "You can't be serious."

Either the baby hormones had finally scrambled his sister's brain or he was right and his sister indulged occasionally in juju weed.

Thinking of juju weed made Kai remember his conversation the night before with Bonnie.

He groaned inwardly. It seemed like his brain found every possible reason to bring her to the forefront of his thoughts! His chest tightened as a specific memory flashed through his mind. Bonnie between him and the kitchen window, her face so near that he could count each of her eyelashes, could smell her breath with each exhale.

Even now, he could feel her essence in this room. It dusted the entire house; it would linger here, this second home of his, long after she had gone.

He was equal parts thankful and resentful for that.

Jo's eyes were searching. "Yes, you are."

It took him a startled moment to realize that she was still going on about him and his father.

"Jo-"

"Duty before love. Coven before everything else, right?" Her voice was sad. "Gee, wonder where you picked that from?"

"That's not true," he said warningly. She was pushing it.

His sister's gaze was unrelenting. "Not yet. But you're getting there, little brother. There were many times you could have gone to Virginia this year. The nomad vampires. The Smallwood pack."

"Their pseudo-Founders' Council did their own housekeeping. Those potatoes were too small for Gemini interference."

"What about the dragon rumors?"

"Some run-of-the-mill shapeshifters with delusions of grandeur. I'm not one to rely on Astromancy, but even the experts ruled that a Landing would be impossible; and if an Old One had been revived, we'd all know now by the … I dunno… current apocalyptic conditions, dontcha think?"

Jo rolled her eyes.

The Southern Court had confirmed that a pair of their shapeshifters had gone rogue a few weeks before the first dragon sighting last Summer, and they had tracked them along every major sighting since then. Kai had volunteered a few Envoys to the Court's manhunt and although it was taking longer than he'd like, it was only a matter of time before the idiots were brought to justice. He supposed the temptation of having a bunch of mundane cultists spring up like weeds in response to the shapeshifters's theatrics had been too much to resist. But the fall out of all that nonsense was that sooner or later, one of those cults would go too far, and then the Gemini coven would find themselves – himself, to be precise – wading in the murky waters of the river of palaver that flowed whenever the same mundanes the Coven was committed to protecting became dangerous nuisances.

"Besides," he chuckled, thinking about this bit, "how the heck would the Mystic Falls Scooby Gang have been able to deal with a real dragon?"

"Yeah, and wasn't that convenient for you? Even if you had needed to look into things, you'd probably have just sent a few envoys and stayed away yourself."

Kai stared her down, daring her to say it.

She did. "You'd have found some reason to stay away from Bonnie."

He kicked her table again and was pleased to see her jump. "Why shouldn't I have?" he asked coldly as he started pacing again. "The situation was being handled… and I knew where I wasn't wanted."

 _"If you think this changes anything between us, then you're mistaken."_

He felt his hands ball into fists. The leather on his wrist crackled as magical static rubbed against his skin.

"You didn't give her time. Oh my goodness, Kai! You _terrorized_ that girl and you expected her to just let everything go because you had one night-"

"You really need to mind your own business, Jo…"

"Now, you're sending her packing to Virginia with the impression that you hate her so much that you won't do your job just to spite her, knowing full well that you've been digging into this matter from the moment you first heard about the heretics re-appearing!"

Now that shocked Kai into stillness. "How the hell did you know about that, Jo?"

Because he had been playing that very close to his chest. At the first whispers of Mystic Falls's newest tenants, he had bought a plane ticket to Virginia and used it. Heretics in Mystic Falls and Bonnie in Whitmore, four hours away. That was two reasons too many for him to get involved. But he had hoped she'd stay out of it. She had, surprisingly, managed to stay out of that town's troubles for a year. But as it turned out, he had hoped in vain; she had been right in the thick of things when he got there. He had barely made it to Virginia in time.

The Council had recommended against getting involved and officially, he had concurred. Unofficially? What he did with his private time as a private person was none of the Council's business.

So how the hell did Sissy of all people know about this?

Jo shrugged. "That's not important."

"Like hell it's not. Have you been spying on me, Jo? Got a few witches in your pocket shadowing me?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" she snapped. "I kept calling you to help with the twins that weekend and you kept putting me off. I asked Liv to port over to your place and you weren't there. I put two and two together."

"I could have been with someone," he grumbled.

"Ha!"

Oh for goodness's sake. He didn't need this. To stand here, feel Bonnie _everywhere_ and deal with Jo's smugness all at the same time.

He turned on his heel and walked towards the door.

"Kai! Come back, OK? I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…" Behind him, his sister sighed.

He froze where he stood, a few steps to the door. If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he wasn't angry at Jo. He wasn't even very angry at Bonnie.

Well, he wasn't _mostly_ angry at Bonnie.

Whom Kai was really angry at was himself, or rather, at his own feelings. These horrible feelings that a year later, had only gotten worse. Stronger. More hopeless.

That misguided shrink had tried to feed Kai some psychobabble about locking his redemption onto the one person he had hurt the most. Kai grudgingly admitted to himself that there was some truth in that. But he had also meant it when he told her – what seemed like eons ago – that they were even. He would always be haunted with what he did to Bonnie – the guilt of it, as much as the regret of paths not taken. But he also knew that she had got her own back at him, with interest.

So why couldn't he let go?

"You need to give her time," Jo said uncannily. "But, Kai... Even if you never get the kind of relationship you want with Bonnie, you can't let yourself turn into this… machine that doesn't feel or care for anything beyond his duty."

"You say that like if it was a bad thing," he muttered.

"It's a bad thing because you can't keep going on with this… this… thing with Bonnie. You can't keep bottling everything inside, not wanting to try, not wanting to let go, hurting her, hurting yourself. Neither of you can."

Something warm gripped him at her words. It took him a moment to realize what it was. Hope.

 _No, you loser_ , he told himself at once. _Don't do this to yourself._

But still. "Neither of _us_? Did… did Bonnie say something… about me?"

Jo's face was pained. "Oh, Kai."

So much for not hoping. He couldn't even keep it out of his voice, out of his face – if his sister's reaction was anything to go by.

"I just…" He cleared his throat against the ache that had started in it. _Come on, Jo_ , he thought desperately.

"Bonnie didn't say anything to me," Jo said gently. "But I could read between the lines… she has a lot of stuff to work through. Whatever Bonnie feels for you, Kai, it's not indifference. That's a start."

He laughed, and it was a hollow sound even in his own ears as the hope vanished as quickly as it appeared, popping out of existence like a pricked balloon. "No. Just slow burning hatred."

"You don't really believe that. She'd never have come here if she still felt that way. "

"Bonnie Bennett was going to lock herself up in a prison world with me for all eternity because it was the right thing to do. She's big on self-sacrifice. Believe me, coming here to ask for help wasn't a big deal."

 _"I guess we're stuck here. Forever."_

If he had a choice now between being the all-powerful Praetor, responsible for the wellbeing and prosperity of a coven, which was just a fancy way of describing his job as a glorified babysitter to a bunch of witches who either feared or hated him – and being stuck in an empty world with only Bonnie Bennett for company – he knew which he would choose in a heartbeat.

What was that word again?

Irony.

"At least just let her know that you're working on this. Let her know that you care about what's happening to her town," Jo insisted.

"No, I don't," Kai said at once, truthfully. "For all I care, that whole town can sink into the ground with everyone in it." Everyone except one.

Jo pursed her lips.

"Why can't you just be happy that I'm not having a psychotic break because my crush doesn't like me back?" He asked lightly.

"Probably because I'm afraid you _will_ have a psychotic break over this and my family and I will be collateral damage."

He recoiled, feeling like if she had punched him.

There was contrition on Jo's face but it was buried under layers of steely resolve. "There's a fine line you're walking here, Kai. You don't see it but-"

He barked with laughter, cutting her off as he gave himself a mental face-palm. Even after everything they had gone through together this year – from her wedding to the fight with the Council over her twins – Jo would probably always regard him as a ticking bomb. As a monster trapped within a man, waiting for the crack, the fault line it could slip through and escape.

He tried to remind himself that he deserved this – just as her forgiveness was her right, not his, the extent of her trust in him was hers to determine, not his to demand in full.

But yet…

Yet…

If his twin sister, who he regarded as his steadiest ally, who was probably the closest person in his life right now, thought of him that way then what the hell did he expect Bonnie to see when she looked at him?

 _And why the Hell did everything keep coming back to her?_

It was enough to make one mad, he thought, feeling the dark emotions beating against his skull like a twisted drum orchestra.

Times like this, the fleeting thought would cross Kai's mind, that being a heretic won't be too bad. Not if it would let him switch off his emotions for good.

"Kai…" Jo tried again.

"Oh save it, Sissy," he taunted. "Once a sociopath, always a sociopath, right? Thankfully, no one's depending on your two months internship in the Psych ward to pull me from the brink. I happen to know my antidote and even better, it's right around the corner." He grinned maliciously. "Good ol' fashioned violence. Magic-ripping, heart-ripping, blood-splashing-everywhere type of violence."

Jo blanched and he laughed nastily.

"But don't you worry. The lucky recipients are not, for a change, your nearest and dearest but two heretics in a quintessential town in Virginia. Shortly to be followed by the rat in our coven that is in league with them. And-" he raised his hand to hush her next words –"spare me the lecture about being paranoid. One good thing about being a semi-retired, semi-reformed sociopath: when I feel someone's out to get me, I'm usually right."

He finished with a smile, and even though the menace in it wasn't directed at her, his sister still flinched.

 _Nice one, loser. Spook the one person on your side._

His heart was like a stone in his chest but he donned the aura of his authority like armor, turned on his heel and went to face his demons.

* * *

An hour after Damon took off, Bonnie was heading to the nursery to find Alaric before he left for the high school. If Damon had any luck with bumping up their flights, then by the time they left Portland, Alaric would still be in school; so Bonnie wanted to say goodbye now.

Her emotions were all over the place. After that wave of exhaustion had flooded her in the room, she was hit with the opposite extreme – tense, wired, out of sorts, like if there was a tight coil inside her, taut with anticipation for something.

Someone.

 _"It's for a good cause."_

Caroline's words still haunted her. As did Bonnie's own memories. She was getting tired of fighting them.

She didn't know what to do. She only knew that whatever she decided had to be soon.

Alaric was in the nursery, cooing over Martha. The baby sat on the floor, banging her toys together and he was on his stomach, watching her. In the far side of the room, Rachel was asleep in the crib. Bonnie sat down beside him and allowed herself a small sense of smugness at finally figuring out the twins.

He grinned up at Bonnie. "Hey, Bon. Thanks for," he cleared his throat when one of her eyebrows went up and his face reddened. "Anyway, you should catch some rest now. Daddy's home," and he smiled at his daughter who – and there was really no other way to describe it – preened.

Bonnie petted the soft down on the baby's head – that was the difference between the two. Martha had a few wisps of dark hair and Rachel was bald.

The baby smiled at Bonnie and her heart loosened. "Oh, you precious little thing," she said softly.

"They're amazing, right?" Alaric said, his eyes fixed on the baby. "So much work. So little sleep. But they smile at you and everything just melts away."

Bonnie nodded. He was right. Just by watching the baby, she could feel that coil inside her loosening.

After a few minutes, she looked at Alaric curiously. "Don't you have to be at work in a couple of hours?"

"Yeah, but I do this all the time. She'll be asleep in a little while. I'll crash for half an hour and then I'll be good to go." He peered at her. "Are you OK?"

"Somebody else was murdered."

His face fell. "Oh no. I'm so sorry, Bonnie. Was it someone you knew?"

 _It was someone somebody knew,_ she wanted to retort but didn't. She couldn't really blame him. That had also been her first concern when she called Matt back that morning.

"Matt said the cops identified her with the contents of her purse. Her name is Judith Stewart. 63. Her address is somewhere in Nevada State. No one has a clue what she was doing near Mystic Falls." Alaric's frown surprised her. "Do you know this person?"

"I-I'm not sure. The name sounds familiar."

She waited but after a while, he just shrugged. "I'll check my records. If I find anything, I'll call you from school."

"We're going to leave today. As soon as possible." At the look of disappointment on his face, she smiled ruefully, "Sorry. Wish we could have stayed longer but -" she sighed heavily.

"Yeah, I know." He said, smiling back. "It's been nice having you guys around. I don't just mean because you gave Jo and I a night out," he added and they both laughed a little. "I miss Mystic Falls sometimes. It wasn't all bad, was it?"

Bonnie gave him a look.

He laughed. "Yeah, it probably was."

"You have a lovely family, Alaric," she said, almost scolding.

He looked at her in amazement. "I know that. Come on, Bonnie, do you think I'd trade a minute of this for anything from Mystic Falls?"

She shrugged, unconvinced. The town had its charm. She had been away for almost a year and it had felt like coming home.

If home was a graveyard, that is.

"I mean, who would have thought, right?" Alaric continued. "Three strikes. My first wife would rather be dead than be married to me. Literally. The next woman I fell in love with was murdered." His face twisted and so did Bonnie's, at the memory of Aunt Jenna. "Then the third woman, well we were almost something, but she ran off. I still tell Jo that Meredith's the smartest woman I ever dated, and that includes her."

Bonnie laughed.

"Now, look at me. A beautiful, amazing wife. A doctor, for that matter." He chuckled. "My old mom would have been so proud. Two beautiful little girls," he stroked Martha's hair.

Bonnie felt her eyes tear up a little.

"I even have a job. As a respectable high school teacher in a town where it's somebody else's job to keep the supernaturals in check for a change. Heck, I'd like to see the suicidal vampire or werewolf or Original that would try to take on the Geminis in their home-front. You did that for me, Bonnie."

Her face burned. "Oh my goodness, not again!"

"You did this," Alaric insisted. "You. And Kai."

And just like that, the tension had coiled back up inside her. The indulgent smile on her face froze.

"Alaric…"

"The heretics wanted to murder Jo first, you know. No idea why. Maybe because she was the most vulnerable person there and the easiest to kill. Maybe because she was the center of attention and they wanted to start their massacre with a big bang. Who knows? But if Kai hadn't got between her and that knife, she'd be dead, and I'd have lost three people that night."

Bonnie said nothing.

Alaric glanced at her. "People change, Bonnie. Damon turned my first wife into a vampire. Years later, he gave up his chance to live so that I could."

"That's different," Bonnie muttered.

Alaric cocked his head, like if he was thinking. "I don't see how it is."

"It just is." She took a deep breath. "Jo told you, didn't she?"

She didn't say about what. She didn't have to.

For a moment though, Alaric looked uneasy, like if he was thinking of feigning ignorance. But her eyes stayed sharp on his face, and he bowed his head.

"Actually, Kai did."

She started. "What?"

"A month before the twins were born, we had a false alarm. Jo and the babies, I mean. I rushed her to the hospital, thinking they were about to come. The nurses were all cool and clinical and not appreciating the situation at all. So, I probably threw a little tantrum."

"A tantrum?"

"Yeah. I got thrown out of the delivery room." He made a face when Bonnie snickered. "Luckily, we had called Kai and he got to run interference between me and Jo. I was out of my mind with worry. Jo didn't have the easiest time with the coven when we got here. And the old witches used to say things about the babies."

"What kind of things?" Bonnie wondered, remembering Liv's talk from earlier.

Alaric shrugged. "Mostly about Jo not being a witch anymore and how she'll have a difficult time because of her age and lack of magic. The doctors said the same about the age part. _Jo_ said the same about the age part. Then there was some talk in the coven about taking the kids from us so that they could be raised in a proper magical home." At Bonnie's alarmed look, he shook his head. "Kai shut that down at once."

She looked away from him and stared fixedly at Martha. The baby was on her stomach, now, kicking with her legs.

Alaric put a bright toy just a little out of the girl's reach.

"He helped calm me down while we were waiting. And we got talking. We aren't close or anything but… you know, family is family. We both care about Jo, about the twins. I told him about Isobel. He told me about you. Now that I think about it, he was probably a little tipsy."

Bonnie felt her hands tighten into fists. Her heart was pounding. "He had no right."

"He'd never told anyone else before. I don't think he even told Jo. She sort of figured it out on her own, twin-style."

Bonnie stood up abruptly and would have walked away but Alaric reached for her.

"Bonnie."

"It was nothing," she snapped. "A moment of … _madness_. Magic. Adrenaline. I was half out of my mind. It could have been with anyone, OK? It just happened to be him and I needed… It meant nothing to me. Except for wishing it never happened because apparently that's why he's refusing to help us now," she said, bitterly.

"Kai would never do that."

"Won't he?" she cried. "You don't know him, Alaric. You don't know how he was before his…" She clapped her hands together. "Mergeance Personality Transplant. He was a monster."

Martha gurgled then, distracting both of them. She had reached the toy. Alaric placed another one just a little out of her way. The baby gave him what Bonnie almost swore was an "Are you kidding me?" glare.

"Come on kiddo, you can do it," he murmured.

Bonnie sighed. "Look, Alaric, can we please just not talk-"

"Was, Bonnie."

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You said _was_. Your words: 'Kai was a monster.' So you do realize that he's not the same guy."

"I did… I don't…" She tripped over her words and Alaric looked at her knowingly.

 _Semantics!_ She thought. She knew what she meant, what she felt.

Anger and hurt were rising in her again.

But Alaric was already going on:

"And you're wrong, you know, about me not knowing who he was. I did meet the old Kai. I even put a gun to his head. All I had to do was pull the trigger but Jo stopped me. Not because she thought he was worth saving though. Because she thought she could merge with him and beat him, and spare Liv and Luke."

Alaric sighed. "And maybe she would have won and we'd be telling a different story now. A better one. Or _maybe something worse_."

He gave her a pointed look.

"But… that's not what happened. Luke merged with Kai. And Kai saved your life. And Jo's . And mine. And a lot of other people at our wedding. And even more people since then. He's done so much good for this coven, and the supernatural world in turn. There comes a point when-"

"Don't, Alaric," Bonnie warned, her voice a harsh whisper because of the baby. "Don't you dare tell me when I have to trust Kai Parker or anyone else who's ever hurt me. Don't. You. Dare."

"I don't," he said softly, and his eyes were sad. "But haven't you already? Didn't you have to for what happened between you two… to have happened in the first place?"

"No, I didn't –"

"Pssst."

They turned to see Liv standing by the door. Her face was tense, her blue eyes wary.

"The Praetor's downstairs." Her voice was cold. "You've been summoned."

* * *

 _June 2013_

On the night of his sister's wedding, when a heretic bit him, Kai screamed not so much from the pain but from the memory.

 _Teeth. So much teeth. His magic. His blood. How much do they need? When will this stop?_

 _Why can't he just die?_

It was sheer reflexive power that shot out of his head and into his attacker's. He felt more than he heard the pop of a skull imploding and then the gooey mess of heretic brains splattered on the back of his suit.

He fell to his knees, bile rising in his throat and he wanted nothing more than to hurl but he was already raising his hands up to push back Iceman and Gingerdum who had apparently crawled out of the literal hole they came from and were about to rush at him again; and Kai started laughing, half-hysterically, because it was more than ridiculous, just how badly his careful plans had screwed up…

Then hexes flew above his head, and both of them hit the heretics inches from his face. Blondie and Ginger shattered into dust and smoke.

A healing spell hit him in the back and a firm grip was pulling him to his feet. He turned to throw a grateful grin at the witch that had joined in the fight.

And took his father's punch full in the face.

Kai reeled, but not before his magic flared out defensively and smote his father in the stomach. Joshua doubled over, coughing out blood while Kai hesitated, his hand up, his magic barely leashed and his head whirling in confusion. It was barely a few seconds of momentary pause, while the battle whirled around them, but it seemed to last forever.

Finally, Joshua lifted his head, and shouted through his blood-stained lips. "This isn't about your stupid pride or petty revenge! You wanted this! You fought for it! You murdered your siblings for it! I locked you up in that Prison because I didn't know how to kill you and yet you found your way back and stole it! Well you got it. Now. do. the. damn. job." With each angry exclamation, he stood a little straighter, came a little closer. By the end, he was standing right in front of Kai and he shoved his son.

Kai shoved him back, both fists up as he glared at his father, his heart pounding with hatred.

Joshua held his ground and glared right back, his eyes brimming with contempt.

"You want to be Praetor? This is what it takes to be Praetor, Malachai. Putting your pride and your vainglory aside to _survive_ for the coven. _Look around you._ This is happening because you forgot your most important job. _Putting the coven first_. Now get out of here so I can clean up your mess the way I did eighteen years ago."

He shouldered past his son and marched off.

Kai swallowed hard as he turned to watch as his father walked into the storm of smoke and magic.

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Thank you dear reviewers. I really appreciate all the feedback, especially those who have sent feedback for both versions of this story. BTW, if ff-net is not letting you review the chapter again, you can send an unsigned review if you like. Finally, thanks a million to my beta _thenameismaynard_ who is the absolute saint that has betad **numerous** versions of this chapter. If you're not reading **By and Down** , please check it out!


	7. 7

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

* * *

 _June 2013_

 _"You'll get it back. It may not look like it to your righteous mind but I'm doing you a favour. Consider this a freebie."_

The morning after Jo's wedding, Bonnie woke with those words echoing in her head. It was warm but under the thick blankets, she had shivered through the night. She stared blankly at the chandelier above her, then at the large window across the room with fancy curtains. The mosaic floor was tastefully dotted with expensive furniture.

For a long moment, she had no idea where she was and panic immediately filled her. She was cold in a way that meant only one thing - she had lost her magic. The nightmare of 1994, and all the times she was vulnerable because she had no power, threatened to consume her.

Then the moment passed; her fright subsided as the memories came back, first slowly like a trickling stream then crashing like a waterfall. The heretics' ambush. The wedding. The fight. Kai Parker porting her out of it against her will.

Taking away her magic for 'her own good'.

Anger flared up inside Bonnie and she sprang up at once.

Last night, after being dumped semi-conscious in this hotel suite, Bonnie had barely given herself a moment to recover, before she had exhausted herself even more trying to find an exit. But every one – the window, the door opening out to the corridor and the connecting door leading to the other room in the suite – had been warded shut. The same spells that kept the doors and windows barricaded had also prevented her from finding a phone or any other form of communication. Of course, he had taken her phone from her, too.

The spells were still active as she quickly confirmed now, fury building up inside her.

He had kidnapped her. Again. He had stolen her magic. Again.

She was cold. Cold and mad. Mad and scared. Because it must have been all over by now – the fight – and she had no idea what had happened. Who had lived. Who had died. And there was only one person to blame for that.

Where the Hell was Kai Parker?

Bonnie was spoiling for a fight and if he were to appear before her right now, she wouldn't need magic to kill him. She'd just gut him with the first sharp thing she could lay her hands on.

She spun around to find one and that was when she saw it. Lying on the corner of her bed, an incongruous rose beside it, was – of all things – a familiar one-eyed teddy bear.

Glowing through its fur, visible through her witch vision, was a vibrant aura that she knew very well.

Tentatively, she touched Ms. Cuddles, wondering if this was a trap.

But it was Bonnie's magic alright, warm and smouldering out of the bear's fur. She had no way of telling, especially now with so little magic left inside her but the power in the bear felt intact, full and untapped.

Kai had kept his word.

Relief poured through her, sharp and unexpected; and her eyes filled with tears. She clutched the bear, cuddling it close and felt the heat from her power seep through her skin, chasing away the coldness that her magicless aura had tormented her with all night long.

It took Bonnie a moment to recollect the incantation; at first she struggled to say the words that she used to draw out her ancestor's magic from a rock in another world. But the second time they came easier, and with each repetition the words flowed faster, and she knew the moment the magic in the bear started pouring into her body.

It was nothing like drawing out magic from a long-dead ancestor. This was _Bonnie's_ own magic and it filled her up like a flood filling up a crater. She cried out in half-pain, half-pleasure as her body lit up from within and through fading eyes, she could see her own veins glowing under her skin. The magic-infused blood seemed to fill up her vision until all that she could see was white.

Then nothing.

When she opened her eyes again, the shadows in the room had changed. She sat up slowly, and stared at her arms. There was still a faint glow through her skin, barely visible with normal sight but nothing a very thorough day at the beauty spa wouldn't have caused. She smiled.

Her body ached though, her joints stiff and painful, like if she hadn't moved in days not hours. The urge to close her eyes to sleep it off was so overwhelming that for a moment, she didn't care where she was or who had put her there.

Then she heard it again. _Felt_ it again. What she now realised must have broken through her deep slumber and forced her to wake.

A shout of pain.

And the crackling in the air that was strong magic being invoked.

She got up at once, and immediately felt dizzy. She had to hold onto the headboard to steady herself. The sense of active magic was pressing down on her – thick and heavy in the air like black floating ropes. Powerful spellwork. And it was coming from close by. She closed her eyes and let her senses guide her, stumbling through the room as she dragged her still tired body along. Her nose bumped into something flat and hard and she opened her eyes.

She had walked across the room, and now she was standing in front of the suite's connecting door. It had been warded before but now it yielded to the press of her hand.

The door was already ajar when she checked herself.

What was she doing?

She had her magic back. Whatever wards were still up would be simple enough to break through. She could go – _should_ go right away. Before, for whatever new inane, insane reason, Kai tried to stop her. Because even though she had only been exposed to his magic a few times, she recognized whose spellwork hung heavy in the air. It was his and he was on the other side of this door.

If Bonnie left now, she could get a phone to call a cab and her friends and find out what happened at Jo's wedding. If she stayed here and he caught her, heaven knows what would happen. He had given her back her magic but that meant nothing. Bonnie had learnt the hard way that having magic was no defence against a siphoner.

She was turning on her heel when she heard it again. The sound of a muffled shout.

And now she could feel it as well. Pain. Enormous and consuming, mingled with the threads of magic.

She didn't hesitate. She pushed open the door.

And stopped in her tracks.

Kai was in the room, just as she had expected. What she hadn't expected was the sight of him. He looked like if he had been thrown out of a plane and then hit by a bus. He stood before what looked like a reading desk, his hands flat on the surface, and she could tell from the tension in his biceps that he was barely holding himself upright. All that was left of his wedding tuxedo were black pants that hung in shreds. His torso was streaked with blood, mud and – and she gagged a little – a cauterised stab wound on his lower torso and two still-open slashes across his stomach. Underneath all this, lines of black tattoos crisscrossed his skin, from his throat, across his chest and down his arms to the tips of his fingers. There were two streaks of caked blood from his temple to his chin, his hair was parted in an unusual manner and when he looked up at her as she stepped in, she could see his eyes.

His eyes were red, their hollows veined.

She backed away in horror.

"Why are you still here?" he asked. The words came out slowly, painfully like if they were torn out of him – or like if he was speaking with a mouth filled with fangs.

"I don't…" _know,_ she wanted to say. Hovering in front of him were three rings, similar to the power rings he usually wore. They were rotating in mid-air, each in a different axis, their colours changing too rapidly for her to ascertain a pattern. A quick glance confirmed that, yes, three rings were missing from his fingers. The glance became longer when she noticed the familiar knife between his hands; its once-shiny blade was now black and shiny, making it almost invisible on the black desk. Then she really took in his hands and she gasped in shock.

What she had thought were tattoos were actually his veins, pulsing with the black blood that showed through his skin. They ran across his entire body, every part that she could see.

Not black blood, Bonnie realized, horror filling her. Black magic.

"What happened to you?" She whispered.

"Get. Out."

Kai's voice was strangled and even as she watched, he jerked his head sharply, involuntarily and bit back a groan.

She took a step forward, too shocked by what she was seeing to even remember her own tiredness.

His eyes turned back to her, and she could see the red recede to give way to the gray-blue. "Your magic. The bear," he croaked.

"I found it," she whispered and took another step forward. The pain rolling out of him was unbearable. She had no idea how he was still able to stand.

As if on cue, he let out another shout and collapsed on his knees.

"Kai!"

 _"Leave!"_

But she had rushed forward and now she stood before him, the desk the only thing separating them. He was pulling himself slowly to his feet, the muscles in his shoulder bunching as the black veins throbbed furiously. She reached out to help him and he caught her hand, clamping around her wrist like a vice.

The angry magic rushed to his palm and she could _feel_ it try to jump from his skin into hers. She could also feel the Herculean effort he was using to keep it leashed to him.

"I. Said. Get. Out." His eyes were red again, and the veined hollows had deepened.

She swallowed. "I can help you," and the words came out before she had made the decision in her head. But she didn't take them back. She had seen this before, recognized a bit of what was happening to him. She could help him.

And she wanted to.

His grip on her wrist tightened painfully, black magic stabbing greedily at her own aura, and his eyes were boring into her with an intensity that was just as painful.

 _"Leave,"_ he roared, and his knees buckled again, her hand slipping out of his grip.

Bonnie was around the table in a flash, her hands reaching for but not quite touching him. She was looking straight down at his head and she almost cried out at what she saw. What she had thought was an odd part in his hair was actually a jagged line running from his crown to his nape where his hair had been _ripped out_ to reveal the pulsing vein beneath. The strands of hair on either side of the line were clotted with blood. Even as she watched, fresh plasma started dripping out of the vein and down his face.

Her stomach churned and she quickly glanced away, her gaze landing on the rings suspended in front of him. One had stopped rotating and was hovering, a thick dark cloud gathering rapidly around it like a dirty ball of wool.

"Let me help you, Kai!" she shouted at him.

He raised his head up then, and looked at her. The trickle of blood had run down an eye, so it looked like he was weeping red tears. His eyes were changing from red to blue to red so rapidly that they appeared to have turned violet.

"Bonnie…" He whispered her name and something else.

She had to lean forward to hear him.

" _Help me_."

He collapsed.

* * *

 _June 2014_

When Bonnie got to the door that led into the kitchen, she hesitated and did a quick once over at her outfit. Straight jeans and a sleeveless shirt she could throw a jacket over during the coming trip and change in weather. More practical than glamorous – the shirt didn't even have an interesting neckline. Her hand went to her hair and, quickly, before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled off her scrunchie and shook her head, letting her hair fall loose over her shoulders.

Then, putting a lid on the voice in her head that had started a scoffing tirade, she put her hand on the knob of the door and walked in.

Of course, her eyes went immediately to the man standing across the room.

He was dressed in a short black jacket, open over the white shirt and black jeans beneath. He had poured himself a glass of orange juice and stood by the window, drinking. His cuffs were turned up, and she could see his rings, and the leather strap on his left wrist. He looked like someone Bonnie would run into on campus, not the feared leader of an ancient coven.

Until you looked at his eyes, of course. Even in the Prison World, there had always been something about his eyes that gave him away and that put her on her guard right from the first.

He turned when she stepped in, and she caught a glimpse of stormy blues, then he turned fully, so that his back was to the window and his face was in shadow. He stood rigidly, his shoulders tight and his hand around the glass white-knuckled. She could still feel the weight of his gaze on her face. It felt angry.

Bonnie's heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong.

"My name is Douglas Parkinson. I sit on the Council. It's an honour to meet you, Bonnie Bennett. Your family is held in great esteem."

The voice pulled her out of her stare and it was only then that she registered the other people in the room – Damon, leaning against the counter with his daily dose of bourbon, and a familiar fair-haired man standing beside her, vying for her attention.

Mr. Asshat from the Council.

Bonnie stared at him, then turned to Kai.

"What's going on? Have you changed your mind?" She asked, hopefully.

"If I may explain…" It was Mr Asshat – _Douglas Parkinson_ that spoke. Kai only stood silently by the window.

Bonnie dragged her attention, unwillingly to the man. It was then she noticed that he had offered her his hand.

She almost didn't take it. "We met yesterday. You didn't act like you were particularly honoured then."

Damon snorted into his bourbon.

Douglas Parkinson shot him a cold glare, before turning back to Bonnie. "Yesterday, I was serving on the Council and if my attitude was a bit hostile, please understand that I was only doing my job." He spoke formally.

"A bit?" Bonnie echoed.

He gave her a stiff smile. "Please believe that I genuinely was not aware that you participated in the Battle. After the hearing, the P… _former_ Praetor briefed me of some of your activities. There are many witches from great families who live off on the good name of their ancestors while applying nothing of themselves. I wrongfully assumed you to be of such a character. Allow me to now apologise and to express my sincere admiration for you, personally."

This time Damon guffawed out loud. Bonnie sneaked a glance at Kai but he still said nothing, only drilled holes into her face with his eyes.

By now Douglas was looking at Damon with open hostility. "Is there anything you would like to say to me, Vampire?"

Damon put down his glass, the mirth in his eyes morphing into something more sinister. "You tell me. Care to step outside for a little chat?"

"No," Bonnie snapped and gave him a warning frown. She turned back to Douglas. "Please why are you here?" The 'please' took some effort but she felt she needed it to counteract Damon's behaviour. "Will your coven help us then?" Her eyes sought out Kai again, wishing she could see his face well enough to read his expression.

Douglas stiffened as he faced her. "I will be coming to Mystic Falls to inspect your heretic dilemma. We will need to consult on occasion. I hope that we will be able to do so effectively." At the last sentence, he gave Damon a pointed glare.

Damon waggled his eyebrows and grinned back. Bonnie was sure that it was only the wards in the Saltzmans's house that stopped him from dropping his fangs.

"So … you are going to help us kill the heretics?" she persisted, confused. "I thought that only the Praetor," she glanced again at Kai and felt a stab of irritation at the man, "could do this." Why did he just stand there, silently watching and probably judging her?

"I can only inform you that our interests appear to have aligned. Beyond that, I have divulged all that I am at liberty to say. Here is my card."

Bonnie took it. It was ordinary-looking, with just his name and a phone number. Then she flipped the back, and saw the indentation of the Gemini symbol moving through the paper.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," he continued. "I need to organize my logistics. Praetor, will you be coming?"

"I have business with my family," Kai said, speaking for the first time since Bonnie entered the kitchen.

The sound of his voice, deep and low infuriated Bonnie in more ways than one.

"Extend my regards to Mr. and Mrs. Saltzman, and Ms. Parker. Once again, Ms. Bennett, it was an honour."

With a stiff nod to Damon, and a low bow to Bonnie, Douglas Parkinson turned on his heel and briskly left the Saltzmans' house.

Damon poured himself another shot. "If that Witch Street stiff steps into my town, I will tie him up with a red bow and hand-deliver him to the heretics myself," he announced.

"Noted," Kai deadpanned, his gaze finally shifting from Bonnie. "I highlighted your tendencies to stab your allies in the back when I gave Douglas my Mystic Falls 101 cheat sheets."

Damon sneered. "Just so we're clear." He strode to Kai and waved his glass at his face. "What the heck are you up to, Kai?"

Bonnie tensed, ready to intervene. "Damon."

Kai said nothing, just looked at the other man with a bored expression on his face as he drained his glass.

"Last year, you lay down the law on Mystic Falls like some Clint Eastwood wannabe in an old B-rated Western, and the only reason why I don't rip your throat out for that is because hey, it's my town, too. I don't need some stuffed up prick from Portland of all places to tell me to protect it. Then now, the first time we ever come to you for backup, you can't move your ass to help."

Bonnie started. What was this about?

Damon poked Kai with an index finger. "And now this? One minute you're hanging us out to dry. Next you're sending your lackey to spy on us."

"First. Douglas doesn't like me. Don't call him my lackey to his face. It'll hurt his feelings. Second. Piece of advice: you're not supposed to introduce your spies to your intended targets. It sort of defeats the purpose. Third. The next time that finger touches me, you're going to lose it."

Damon growled and drew back his fist.

The glass in Kai's hand vibrated with the slightest, faintest tingle.

Bonnie was between them in an instant, her hand on Damon's wrist. "Stop it."

He yanked his fist back and glared at her.

"Remind me again why we needed this jerk's help?"

"Mmm…" Kai murmured and she realized with a slight shock, that he was near enough for her to feel his warmth on her back. "Let me see. The last time you faced a bunch of heretics, you hightailed it faster than a Bugs Bunny cartoon. If I were a betting man – actually, I am a betting man …"

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, pressing her palms into her eyes and groaned until he stopped talking.

"Damon, can you give us a moment please?" She asked quietly.

She dropped her hands to see Damon looking at her like if he thought she was insane.

"Er… let me think. No."

"Please, Damon," she hissed.

He glared at her with narrowed eyes. Then he shot Kai a final poisonous look. "Watch yourself around her." Then he gave Bonnie a slightly less menacing one. "Yell if you need help."

Kai snorted.

Damon growled and grabbed the whole bottle on his way out. The door slammed loudly behind him.

Bonnie whirled round to face Kai.

He was near, barely inches from her and she instinctively took a step back.

He raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing. He had gone back to the same brooding, almost angry stance that he had worn when she first entered the kitchen. Once again, she was filled with the sense that something – she, to be exact – had ticked him off.

Still, there was something she needed to know first. "What did Damon mean about you laying down the law on Mystic Falls?"

He took his time answering. She was about to snap a repeat of the question, when he finally drawled, "That's between me and Damon, don't you think?"

"Really? That's your response."

This time, he didn't deign to reply.

Bonnie bristled. "Fine, then. What did Asshat mean when he said our interests have aligned? Why is he really coming to Mystic Falls?"

His mouth twitched. "Asshat?"

She shrugged. "Douglas Whathisname."

He smirked a little. "He is a bit of that, isn't he?"

"Answer my question, Kai."

His eyebrow went up even higher. "You do like ordering me around, don't you, Bonnie?" He brushed past her, his jacket rubbing against the bare skin of her arm and she stifled a gasp at the contact. "It was the Council's recommendation. Last night's casualty caused them to rethink their position."

He stopped at the counter, put down his glass, and turned to her. His eyes were fiery. "This is not some special favour I've done for you because you have me wrapped around your little finger."

Her mouth fell open. "What. No, I don-"

"Really?" he snarled. "Wasn't that the whole point of you waltzing in here to Portland and demanding to speak to the leader of the coven? Think you have me on some sort of leash?"

Bonnie felt her face burn and then her own anger flared up. "Where the Hell is this coming from? I asked for your help and you said no. You don't owe me anything, remember? You've made that abundantly clear."

A myriad of expressions flitted across his face, too fast for her to catch. It finally settled on a scowl as he muttered, "You and I both know that's not completely true."

Her ire left and bewilderment took its place. With the latter was also relief because at least she could begin to understand why he seemed so angry – or rather, angrier than usual. But just what the Hell did he mean by that? What was going on here? One minute he was yelling at her because of this non-existent hold she had on him and now he was saying…

What exactly was Kai saying?

That they were _not_ even? That he owed her one favour?

Or that she _did_ have him wrapped around her finger?

Bonnie stared at his brooding form.

Did she?

In her confusion, she could only manage to shoot back weakly, "Wanna tally?"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"I have-" he started just as she said, "I know-"

They both paused. Bonnie licked her lips nervously and his eyes went to her mouth at once. And stayed there.

Her own mouth went dry.

 _"You're better off talking to Kai yourself. Or maybe more than just talking…"_

"You first," he said slowly, his half-lidded eyes still on her mouth. The scowl remained on his face but there was something else there too.

Hunger.

Bonnie swallowed. She was still standing by the window and he was half way across the kitchen and the irrational thought gripped her that they were too far apart.

 _For what, exactly?_

The voice in her head was Caroline's.

Without stopping to think, she walked across to him.

He stood still, his eyes not once lifting from her as she approached him. It struck her then that the first time she had come this close to him, had been in the 1994 prison world, when he had tricked or tested her – she still didn't know which – to find the Ascendant. She had placed her hand right on his jacket, a full hand span from the pocket where the device was, and felt the thrumming of his heart beneath; and she wasn't sure what had been the stronger force – the magic of the locator spell or her own desire to touch him.

She could have easily told him and Damon where the Ascendant was, and called Kai out on his trick.

But Bonnie had touched him because she had wanted to. Their eyes had locked, magic swirling around them and she had felt it for the first time – that dual sensation of attraction and repulsion. Wanting to be as close to him as possible. And wanting to be as far away from him as possible.

She had told Damon then that there was something not quite right about Kai Parker. But the truth had been – and still was – more complicated than that.

There was something not quite right about the way Kai Parker made her feel.

Now, she stopped right in his space; and just like that first time, she was close enough to stretch her hand and touch his chest. She stared at it, now, at its rapid rise and fall under his white T-shirt. Then she took a step even nearer.

"Bonnie," he said, his voice low and resonating with something deep inside her. It sounded like a warning, and like a plea.

She looked up at his face, and quickly looked away, her eyes stopping to rest on his tense jaw, unable to hold that burning, hungry gaze a moment longer.

She swallowed again. "I know how you killed the heretics," she said softly.

He started. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, it clearly wasn't that. "Do you now?" he returned quickly, guardedly.

"It was something someone… something I heard yesterday that tipped me off." Bonnie decided not to mention Liv for his sister's sake. "Then I remembered, your rings." She glanced at them now and because of what she was about to say next, she kept her eyes on them. "I remembered what happened the day after Jo's wedding, too."

She didn't think it was possible, but his body became even tenser than it already was.

It was a few seconds before Kai spoke. They felt like eons. "I thought we were supposed to be pretending that day never happened," he said and his voice was very, very low.

She licked her lips, feeling his gaze heavy on her and feeling like a coward because she couldn't bring herself to meet it.

"Yeah, I've been doing that a lot," she said and she swallowed back a sudden burst of inappropriate, slightly hysterical laughter. "And that's why it took me so long to figure it out. What happened that night."

"Which night, Bonnie? My sister's wedding? Or the one after?" Impossibly, his voice went even deeper. "Both of them were equally memorable."

Heat washed over her, from the top of her head, through her lungs, to settle somewhere in her core. He was deliberately trying to derail the conversation. But that didn't stop his words from affecting her.

She shook her head to clear the haze that had filled it and pressed on stubbornly. "They can't be killed as heretics because they can't _cross-over_ as heretics. Part servant of nature and part abomination of nature, in the end, heretics are neither and nature will not… _cannot_ let them cross over." Her lips twisted with wry bitterness. "You're talking to the resident expert of crossing overs. I should know." Another part of her life that she had spent the better part of the year putting behind her.

He stayed silent, but she heard the slightest shift in his breath. She bit back a smug grin; she was close.

"They couldn't be killed. Their very 'destruction' would release power that they would reabsorb, and rejuvenate with. Like using magic against them, it just made them stronger. So you consumed their necromancy, you _unmade_ them, until they were siphons. Dead siphons."

"Too bad you used up the Cure, right?" he asked, dismissively. But when she glanced up, his dark eyes were glinting with something like – her heart fluttered–admiration.

"I don't think the Cure could work. It's still magic. It's still something they can feed on. But you…" She bit her lip; and watched as his eyes, almost black now, went to her mouth. "You're a siphoner. Probably the only one alive right now who's not already a heretic. But Kai," she raised her chin, "I took Qetsiya's magic from that rock. If you can just teach me-"

She bit back a shriek as his hands clamped around her upper arms and yanked her forward, her hips hitting his own. Her hands fell on his chest reflexively. Bonnie's magic snapped to her fingers at once, ready to strike back but he just held her, glowering down at her, his jaw ticking furiously.

He spat out each word like bullets from a gun. "Qetsiya was your ancestor. Your blood and your magic come from her. Drawing from her magic compared to drawing from, say, Liv is like swimming in the kiddie pool compared to swimming in the deep end of an Olympic sized pool."

"I'm an excellent swimmer," Bonnie retorted, "and a trained lifeguard to boot."

His eyes narrowed and his rings dug into her bare skin as his grip tightened. He shook her, slightly but enough that her teeth rattled. "And comparing that to drawing from a heretic would be like swimming in the ocean. In the middle of a storm. With _sharks_."

Bonnie lifted her chin defiantly.

Kai laughed, an incredulous barking laughter. "You're crazy enough to try this." And he let her go. She stumbled back, grabbing onto the counter for support.

He looked away from her, then looked back, his hands raking down the sides of his face as he scoffed. "Bonnie…"

"Throw me a life jacket, Kai," she countered. "If you're so worried about me, come with me to Mystic Falls and we'll do it together. I can help you. Like the last time, but better-"

"…the last time…" he repeated, his hands falling as he looked at her.

Those three short words were loaded with forbidden memories. He wasn't making a statement. He was asking a question.

Bonnie licked her lips, saw his gaze go to her mouth again. It seemed like a kind of reflex of his. "Yes," she whispered and she was stepping into his space again. _Oh god, was she really doing this_? The urge to push him away and the urge to pull him to her… it was the latter that was winning now.

His Adam's apple bobbed jerkily. There was a desperate longing in his eyes that would have frightened her if she wasn't feeling the exact same thing right now.

"No."

It took a moment for her to understand what he said. Then she drew back sharply.

"W-what?"

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the longing was still there. But it was also mixed with fury. "You really think …" He bit off what he must have been about to say. "I said No, Bonnie. No. _Non. Nada. Niente._ NO. You can stop trying to manipulate me right now."

Blood rushed to her face. "I… I'm not," she lied.

Kai scoffed again, walked away from her in short angry steps, then turned and marched right up to her. She stepped back in alarm. He looked angry enough to bite.

"You regretted what happened. You made that oh so abundantly clear. A moment of madness, you said. But dangling yourself in front of me, using how I feel…?" He broke off, and his whole body was practically sparking with fury.

She wrapped her bare arms around her body, suddenly feeling vulnerable.

"And for what?" he continued, his voice lethal. "Why are you even involved in this? Weren't you supposed to have closed shop in that town?"

She stared. "How did you know…?"

"Oh, let me guess. Damon broke a nail grappling with a heretic and he called 911 Paramagical – you. So you come rushing back to save the box of tools that you call friends? The same besties that ran off and left you behind at the first sign of trouble at my sister's wedding?"

Bonnie recoiled from the viciousness of his words. "They didn't even know I was there. If they had-"

"They'd what? Stay and fight? For you? Aren't these the same guys who couldn't take a timeout from their 90210 drama long enough to figure out a way to free you from prison?"

With each word he spoke, her hackles rose higher. By the time he was done, her fists were clenching and unclenching at her sides as she imagined using a hex to sew that spiteful mouth shut. "I'm not doing this for them. I'd have thought you of all people would realize that. But hey, I forgot who I was talking to. You don't feel even the iota of responsibility for this, do you?"

His eyes narrowed into slits. "Believe me, I do, Bonnie. I am full aware of the role I played in starting this. So if you're asking if I learnt the hard way not to throw away my good judgment for your sake, then the answer is yes."

Despite her own anger, she flinched. "So you're putting this all on me? How convenient," she asked hoarsely.

She had thought he couldn't get more furious; she was wrong. The pots hanging above rattled as his face darkened. "That. is. just. it. This has _nothing_ to do with you! It never did. Lily Salvatore. The heretics. My coven. _It was never your fight, Bonnie._ I learnt my own lesson. When will you? How long are you going to keep throwing yourself into battles that aren't your own, to save people who won't do the same for you?"

Oh, that hit. That hit hard. Bile rose in her throat as her own angry magic added to his. "Shut your mouth! You don't know a damn thing about my friends or me."

"Oh yes, I forgot who I was talking to. Loyal Bonnie. Faithful to the end," he said, sneering. "Do you get off on sacrificing yourself, Bonnie?"

"Go to hell, Kai!" She shoved past him to walk out of the kitchen. There was absolutely zero reason for her to stand here and listen to him insulting her. But before she reached the door, he was there between it and her.

"You're not going to try to siphon magic from the heretics." It was an order.

Bonnie saw red. "Who the hell are you to tell me what I can or cannot do?" She yelled.

"The person who just did. The person who can take your magic away if he doesn't like what you do with it."

"You won't dare!" Real fear gripped her at that.

"Try me," he said grimly.

She took a deep breath, forced herself to stay calm and not give into the overpowering urge to launch herself at him and strangle him with her bare hands.

"You think I let my friends use me," she hissed. "Fine. You don't want to help me. _Fine_. But don't you _dare_ get in my way, Kai."

"Not until you promise you won't do this."

Bonnie chuckled nastily at that. "All bets are off, remember?" She raised her hand and silently _Motused_ him out of her way. He slid across the wall, and stumbled into Jo's dishwasher.

Her left hand was on the knob when he grabbed her by the arms and spun her towards him, and before she could blink, she was pinned between him and the door. Her hands went up at once, shoving against him with her magic but he was ready this time and deflected it without blinking, sending it fizzling into the space between them.

"What the hell, Kai?"

He cracked his neck and glared at her. She tried to shove past him, then tried to kick past him; after a few moments of struggling while he watched her, holding her almost effortlessly against the door with a bored expression on his face, she leaned back, gasping.

"You let me go now or I swear-"

"What's your dominant hand?"

Bonnie bit back on the curse she was about to hurl at him. "W-what?"

"Your dominant hand," he said slowly as if he was talking to a child. "The hand you use to cast and write."

The question was so mundane, his tone so patronizingly normal that she was thrown for a loop.

"I-I don't have one," Bonnie stammered. "I'm ambidextrous."

Incongruously, something like a smile flitted across his face. "Figures. I could never tell."

The meaning behind the words – that Kai had studied her and tried to know this – didn't escape her. It threw her even more off balance than she already was and that proved unfortunate for her.

His left hand – the one holding her right shoulder in place, unclenched a little, just enough for it to run down the length of her arm, his palm cupping around her limb and sending goosebumps in their wake until he was holding her right hand.

She gaped at him in confusion. What was he doing? She could probably have pushed him away then, without magic. But she was frozen at the spot, her heart pounding as he lifted their hands to chest level, lining their fingers up against each other, his rings pressing into the edges of her palm. Then he let go of her other arm so that he could use his free hand to untie the leather strap on his left wrist.

His skin underneath where the strap had lain looked distinctly paler than the skin beside it. It made his wrist look naked.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked.

Later she berated herself that she should have known what was going to happen next. But at the moment, she just stood stupidly as his long fingers quickly wrapped the band around her wrist and pulled the strings so tautly that she gasped.

"Hey!"

Kai gave her a stern look as he knotted the strings.

"Stop," she said and tried to pull her hand back but he held onto it firmly. His face was grim as she struggled, trying to use her other hand to pry his grip from her. "Let me go, Kai."

"Ideally, I'd ask you if you trusted me," he said coldly, finishing the knot with a bow, and she stopped struggling long enough to look at him. "But we both know the answer to that, right?"

His eyes glinted silver, and Bonnie felt a jolt of magic pour out from his hands into her wrist.

She cried out as the strap tightened so painfully that for a moment, she thought it was going to cut off her hand. Then the pain vanished, and with it the strap. It sank into her skin and disappeared. All that was left of it was a black band, roughly its shape, inked around her wrist like a tattoo.

She yanked her hand – he let her go – and clutched at her wrist, rapidly casting a string of spells. She could feel her magic work – which was a relief because there was a horrible split-second when she thought he _really_ had somehow taken her magic from her – but nothing she did made any difference. The tattoo remained, the band irretrievably strapped around her.

"What the Hell did you just do to me?" she cried, looking up at him.

He smirked. "Maybe I put a hex on you."

Oh god, Bonnie thought furiously, her heart now pounding out of control. Why even now, when she was so furious and yes, slightly frightened of him, did she want to reach up and kiss that smirk off his face?

What the Hell was wrong with her?

Kai's eyes darkened then, the smirk slipping off, and she wondered, mortified, if her face had emoted her thoughts.

"Take it off," she whispered.

"No," he whispered back. But he took a step closer and for a moment, she thought, wildly, inappropriately, _please just kiss me_.

He didn't, just kept staring down at her with that half-angry, half-hungry look on his face that she knew so well.

The moment passed.

Bonnie slid past him, turned the knob of the door and fled.

* * *

 **a/n** : Wow, thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! I adore each and every one of you that took the time to say that you liked it, what you liked, etc. I love feedback - in case I haven't made that clear - and welcome both good and bad. And to all the new readers that came in, thanks so much for giving this story a chance. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Thank you **Sorce** for pointing out the discontinuity at the beginning of the first chapter. That's what happens when I edit without running it through my amazing beta **keenan24** first. (By the way, y'all reading By and Down, right? Because I can't pimp that fic enough!) **bonkaiaddict** \- I lol'd when I saw your review because your request for more Bonkai one-on-one interaction couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. To everyone else, thank you once again for your feedback. I promise to take the time to do individual replies during one of these updates. But I have a feeling you'd rather I just churn out the chapters faster! Now, I've stopped promising to update more regularly. That's a skill that only the likes of _pennytree_ (omg did y'all read Charade 30? omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg!) have mastered! And now that September and classes are around the corner, I don't know. But I'll keep on plodding away at this any chance I get.

 **ETA (REWRITE):** Special thanks to reviewers who've taken the time to review both versions of this story (old and new). **JustStockton,** I appreciate it so much and it's made me feel that this re-write was really worthwhile. And anyone else who wants to leave a second review, you can always leave one without logging in, and just sign off your name manually so I'll know who it's from. **bonkai-dreams** , I've really enjoyed reading your reviews and you've been hitting the mark on some of your insights (which of course, I won't confirm/deny) which.


	8. 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

* * *

 _June 2013_

"Bonnie… Bonnie, wake up!"

In the early hours of the day that would end with a wedding and a massacre, it was fitting that Elena Gilbert woke up Bonnie Bennett from a nightmare.

Bonnie sat up, her eyes wild as they latched onto Elena's face. For a moment, what Bonnie saw was not the tear-streaked, anxious face of her oldest, dearest friend but a tall, dark-haired female vampire looming over her; and reflexively, her hand stretched out, magic lashing at its target.

Elena fell to her knees, holding her throat with one hand, gasping for breath.

"Bonnie, it's me!" she managed to choke out.

It took Bonnie a moment before she could realize her mistake. _Not Lily Salvatore. Elena. Not a vampire. Elena._ Then she pulled back the spell with a little scream. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Are you OK?"

"I-I'm fine," Elena croaked, standing up slowly.

Bonnie started climbing out of the bed to help her, when she realized that she couldn't. Her arms were attached by tubes to medical equipment by her bed. With a start, she realized that she wasn't where she assumed she'd be when she woke up in a bed – in her dorm room – but apparently, in a hospital ward.

"What am I doing here?" she asked, confused.

"Don't you remember?" Elena asked hoarsely as she fell back into the chair by Bonnie's bedside. "Jo's bachelorette's party? The bar? Lily?"

And slowly, it came back to Bonnie. She shuddered violently and clamped her hand on her neck. The skin there was smooth, unbroken.

"She attacked me," she whispered, more out of anger than fear. "Even after I let her go and she…" Then panic hit her, but not for herself. "Oh my god, Jo!"

"Jo's fine," Elena said quickly. "She followed in the ambulance that brought you here."

"Where's she now? Is she safe? The baby?"

Elena laughed ruefully, her eyes shining. "The babies are fine. Jo's fine. You're the one we were all worried about."

"What about Lily? We need to track her down. We only just got Stefan and Caroline under control-"

"Lily's not your problem anymore, Bonnie. You're not listening to me, are you? You were in the hospital all night."

"I got blood from you, didn't I?" Her brow furrowed. "Why am I even here?"

"Oh, Bonnie," Elena breathed and in the next moment, she had enveloped Bonnie, tubes, wires and all, into a fierce hug. "I was so worried about you."

 _Why? Who's in danger now? What new spell do you need?_ Bonnie wondered. "I'm fine," she said, choking a little under Elena's hair. "Can you…?"

Laughing softly, Elena pulled away. She sank back into her seat and wiped at her eyes.

In an effort to lighten the mood, and dispel her own bitter thoughts, Bonnie said glibly, "You can make up for your crazy future-mother-in-law by compelling a cute resident to check me out in the next five minutes. We've got to get out of here ASAP. Do you have any idea how many texts Caroline must have sent by now? She must be freaking out right now."

"Ugh, don't remind me!" Elena groaned. "Whose bright idea was it to let her take over organizing the wedding?"

Bonnie cleared her throat loudly.

"That was a rhetorical question!"

Bonnie laughed and in a few moments, Elena joined her. After a while, they fell silent, and simply stared happily at each other as they shared a rare, peaceful moment in their supernaturally melodramatic lives.

And then it was back to business.

"So where is Lily now?" Bonnie persisted.

"I told you. Gone."

"What do you mean _gone_?"

Elena looked at her uncertainly. "After she attacked you, Kai Parker was there-" She broke off, dashing quickly to one of the monitors in the room that had just given a shrill beep. She looked down worriedly at Bonnie. "Calm down."

"I am calm," Bonnie muttered, trying to even out her breathing that had hitched at the mention of _his_ name. "You were saying…"

"I don't think-"

The door flung open and a group of medical staff, headed by Dr. Jo Laughlin rushed in.

"You're awake!" she gasped.

The others started poking and prodding at Bonnie without so much as a by-your-leave.

Dr. Jo hung back, staring at Bonnie.

Bonnie smiled uneasily. "I think so. Ouch!" she cried, when a nurse stabbed her with a needle.

"Oh god," Jo said softly.

The good thing was that they removed half of the wires holding Bonnie in place. There was another doctor with the others, and after he checked the monitors, he spoke to Bonnie softly, asking her questions about her name, age, the current President, and then asking her how she felt.

"I feel fine," Bonnie said quickly. "I think I'm good to leave now."

The doctor and Jo exchanged glances, then he turned back to Bonnie. "I'm sure you do but I'm going to ask you to stay for a few more hours. You gave us a real scare, young lady. These machines tell me you're fine, and everything checks out so we've unhooked you a bit but I'd like to run some tests before you leave and you're going to get a few more hours of rest." When Bonnie started talking, he waved her silent. "I know you have a wedding to go to, but trust me, I think the bride will understand." He winked.

After a few minutes, the rest of the crew left. The doctor lingered at the door. "I'll be honest with you, I've seen some medical miracles but yours takes the cake. I don't know if you're a religious person, but you definitely need to check in with your Guardian Angel sometime today."

He chuckled to himself. While Bonnie was still staring, he turned to Elena with a parting shot. "Ms. Gilbert, are you on call today?"

Elena shifted nervously. "Just staying with my friend, Dr."

"Visiting hours are over," he said sternly.

"Oh, let her stay," Jo said, speaking up for the first time since she stepped into the room. "She'll know not to wear her out."

"She'd better. Miss Bonnie needs to rest. Next time, there's a spike, Ms. Gilbert, I'll have you thrown out."

He left and Elena made a face at his departing back, making Bonnie giggle a little.

"I saw that," Jo said sternly, but absentmindedly. She came to stand by Bonnie. Her face was filled with wonder as she looked down at Bonnie, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

Bonnie fidgeted a little under the scrutiny.

"I really am fine." She snorted. "Medical miracle, huh? More like vampire blood."

"Yeah," Jo said slowly. "That was probably it."

She bent down and carefully, navigating through the wires and tubes, gave Bonnie a hug. When she straightened up, her eyes were shining. She looked away quickly. "Gotta get ready for a wedding. You take care, Bonnie."

"Bye Jo," both girls said softly.

Bonnie turned to Elena when the door closed. "What happened to me last night?" she asked at once.

"I told you. Lily attacked you. We thought you won't make it."

"But I did."

"Obviously," Elena said with a shaky smile.

Bonnie shook her head, confused. There was something more to all this.

And Elena hadn't answered her question about Lily's whereabouts.

She asked her again, leaning forward earnestly. "Look, I need to know or I'll just imagine the worst."

Elena sighed. "She's been banished to the 1903 prison world."

Bonnie fell back against her pillows. "Oh."

Elena was staring at her worriedly, as if she expected another of Bonnie's monitors to start beeping.

But Bonnie merely said quietly, "so that's over, then." She exhaled heavily. "The whole trip might as well have never have happened."

 _The whole trip should never have happened_ whispered a treacherous voice in Bonnie's head.

"Not really," Elena said hesitantly. "I got the Cure. I'm not sure Damon would have given it to me if she hadn't made him."

Elena had been doing that more and more of late, Bonnie managed to observe despite the thoughts swirling in her head. Speaking with a candidness about Damon, and her relationship with him in a way that Bonnie had never known her to do before.

"So, what did you decide?" Bonnie asked. She reached over and touched Elena's cheek.

Even before her fingers made contact with warmth, Bonnie realized it. In truth, she should have realized it from the moment she woke up, and saw Elena, felt her presence. But she had got so used to Elena's aura as just hers, not a vampire's or a human's, just _Elena's_ that it didn't quite dawn on her until this moment.

She sank back into her pillows. "You did it," she breathed. And now that Elena had actually done it, it struck Bonnie that a part of her had expected her friend not to go through with it. "You took the Cure."

"You sound surprised?"

"I don't really know why," Bonnie admitted. "I mean, you've wanted to be human again since the moment you became a vampire."

 _I should know. I died the first time I tried to Cure you. Before then, I helped build the spell that killed your father so that you won't wake up as a vampire after Klaus killed you. So I don't know why I'm surprised you took it after a little second-guessing. Heck, you even managed to spare a few seconds from your night of 'worrying' over me to swallow it down._

The angry voice wasn't a complete stranger to Bonnie. She had first started hearing it during those months of isolation in 1994, when reflection had led to despair. But then she found Damon's map – _hah!_ the voice said now – and found her way out of that prison and the voice had seemed to quieten when she returned home.

If she were honest with herself, Bonnie knew that the voice hadn't completely left her in those early days. It had whispered to her when the morning after her return from 1994, Elena had asked her to babysit Caroline at the rave. It had rumbled at her when Damon had orchestrated that vomit-inducing encounter with Kai at the same rave. It had muttered the morning that he had appeared in her dorm, demanding her help with his mother.

But when she had been bending over Kai in the snow, holding her knife ready to strike – it had been quiet. And Bonnie had thought – hoped – that she had finally silenced it.

She hadn't, though. But it had been quieter, only whispering words of uncertainty in the dead of night.

Then Jo told her that Kai couldn't die, Bonnie had had to go back for him, and he had told her the truth – about her birthday, about Damon's 'rescue' – and the voice had come rushing back in all its poisonous self-doubting glory.

Elena's eyes had taken a distant, faraway look. "So because I've always wanted it I should get it? How is that fair? No one gets what they want all the time. Life doesn't work that way."

Bonnie stared. "Why're you talking like this?"

Elena looked down at the hands that were folded in her lap. "It just makes me wonder sometimes… if things don't always work my way… usually at the expense of other people."

 _Damon's hands around Abby's neck. The cracking sound of her mother's neck being snapped._

 _Jeremy dying. Jeremy coming back._

 _Bonnie dying. Bonnie coming back._

Bonnie looked away. "That's ridiculous, Elena. You've suffered more than anyone I've ever known."

"I used to think so. But now I'm not so sure."

"What are you trying to say, Elena?" Bonnie said, getting irritated. "Do you regret taking the Cure or what?"

"No," Elena said firmly. "I don't."

"Sure about that? Last night you were worrying over what to do."

"Last night _you_ seemed mad that I hadn't taken the Cure already."

"I wasn't _mad_ ," Bonnie said testily.

"Are you sure?" Elena snuck a glance at her from beneath her lashes. "Because I think you were. You're also mad at me right now, aren't you?"

"Why should I be?" Bonnie muttered.

 _Mad at you for second-guessing the reason why Expression drove me half-mad? The reason we all risked apocalypse to get the Cure for you? The reason your brother died? Then I died bringing him back to life? Suffered for months as the Anchor and ended up in Kai's prison world?_

 _Raised Silas who murdered my father?_

 _Why ever would I be mad at you for that?_

She kept the words in her head, but she couldn't keep the bitterness from her gaze – not if the dejection on Elena's face was any indication.

Guilt battled with fury inside Bonnie, and confusion came out top. Why was she so _angry_? Yes, she was furious at Damon over the whole Kai affair. Damon hadn't just hidden the truth from her - he had taken credit for her rescue when Jeremy and Kai - _Kai!_ \- had done the heavy lifting. And to free his mother, he had lied to her and used her. Again.

But after the first flash of rage, it was almost a joke how unsurprised she was at Damon's actions. Damon had just been Damon. He had not changed in the least, not really. It was Bonnie who had decided that he had, who had developed this idealized version of him in her head after four months of their time together. A version of him that simply did not exist in the real world.

He had given her no reason to believe he had changed.

Bonnie only had herself to blame for wanting to think he had.

But Elena…

Elena hadn't known about Damon's and Bonnie's plans to trap Kai in 1903. Hadn't even been meant to come along on that trip. Had explained to Bonnie in the middle of the massive blowout with Damon that she hadn't known that Bonnie had been kept in the dark about the events that took place during her 'birthday party'.

But at that time, Bonnie hadn't cared and she had lashed out at Elena as well. They were reconciled now – something Bonnie was sure she could never be with Damon. Yet this lingering resentment, well, lingered.

Why?

"Bonnie-" Elena whispered. She gave the at-the-moment silent monitors a worried glance.

Bonnie forced a smile on her face, pushing her confusing thoughts far into the back of her mind.

"No biggie, Elena. If you hadn't taken it, I bet there are a million uses I could have found for the only known cure to immortality in the world. Or I could have auctioned it on the supernatural black market and paid off my student loans. Live rich as sin for the rest of my life." Bonnie waggled her brows.

Elena managed a tentative smile. "Says the girl who has two trust funds and a college scholarship."

"I kind of lost my scholarship when I died."

"And all you have to do is give a name and number, and any one of a half dozen vampires would gladly compel it back to you. And talking of compulsion addicts, I don't care what bonding experience you two went through in 1994 but please, don't ever do that twitchy eyebrow thing again. That's Damon's thing. It looks ridiculous on him and it looks ridiculous on you."

Despite herself, Bonnie snickered.

Elena rolled her eyes dramatically. "What's even worse is that he thinks it's sexy and I've never been able to break it to him that -"

"Liv? Liv Parker?"

Elena cut herself off, to follow Bonnie's gaze to the figure of Liv Parker, standing in her doorway, with the oddest look on her face as she stared at the two girls inside.

"Elena? Bonnie?" Her voice was hoarse.

"Liv?" Bonnie answered, echo-like. When Liv just kept staring, Bonnie and Elena exchanged confused glances.

"Are you OK?" Elena asked, slowly. "You look like if you've seen a ghost." She chuckled uneasily. "Which isn't figurative in these parts…"

"No, I…" Liv shook her head and the reflection of fluorescent light on her massive blonde curls almost blinded Bonnie. The white shock on her face had morphed into nervousness, which was an even stranger look on her. And considering that she had disappeared from Whitmore since her brothers merged and her twin lost – her presence alone was a bit of a surprise to the girls inside the room.

She stepped inside uncertainly. "I was looking for my sister. I went to her apartment and she wasn't there… They told me at the desk that her shift just ended and I don't know where Alaric lives…"

Elena stood up. "I can give you the address where she is." Then she hesitated. "Only I don't completely trust you, Liv."

Liv blinked. "She's my sister."

"So you should have her number," Elena countered.

Liv turned to Bonnie but the other witch's face was blank. The blonde pursed her lips and tried to glare down the younger girls.

When it became obvious that they were not going to back down, Liv finally admitted, "I threw away my phone when I went on the run with my Dad. Everything I had on Jo was there. We and most of the witches in my coven just came out of hiding. Dad made us come back for Jo's wedding. To show support. Apparently, he and Kai have worked something out." The look on her face spoke volumes about what she thought about _that_.

"So get her number from your Dad."

"He doesn't have it either."

Elena and Bonnie looked at each other. Both shook their heads imperceptibly.

Elena turned back to Liv. "Then you can come to the venue early and try to catch hold of her. Or wait until the wedding, and see her with everyone else."

Liv's blue eyes flashed. "What the hell?" Magic crackled at her fingers.

"Hey!" Bonnie snapped and both witches locked gazes.

The sparks around Liv's fingers vanished. But the ones in her eyes were still there.

"Look, Michelle and Kelly, I just really need to talk to Jo, OK? It's important."

"What is this about?" Elena asked. "Maybe if you explained to me…"

"What's so difficult to understand that I want to be there for my sister on her wedding day?"

Elena snorted. "Did you remember that Jo was your sister when you were trying to kill Kai Parker? When _he_ was trying to help us bring back Bonnie? Besides, you're not always the most trustworthy person, Liv and you come from a really weird coven so forgive me if I don't jump at the chance to reconnect you with my friend and mentor on her wedding day."

"Wait a second… I'm the bad guy because I tried to kill _Kai_?" Liv sputtered.

"You knew Kai's life was linked to the rest of your coven and you were going to kill him and everyone else anyway."

"I was upset," Liv said through gritted teeth. "My twin just died and I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Obviously."

Liv's face turned wrathful. "What happened? He did a few freebie spells for you vampires and he's now everyone's BFF?" She threw a poisonous glance at Bonnie. "Careful, Bennett. You're dispensable now. Mega-powerful Gemini coven leader trumps self-tutored witch any-day."

"I'll keep that in mind," Bonnie replied at once but the barb had struck, and her voice didn't sound quite as glib as she hoped. She felt Elena give her a look of concern, then turn to hiss furiously at Liv.

Liv raised a hand, staving the irate girl off. "As for you, Gilbert, _your_ brother died and you and Rebekah Mikaelson racked up a massive body count when you went on your little Thelma and Louise trip from Virginia to New York. I would have thought that you of all people would have some freaking sympathy."

Elena visibly wilted. "If you leave a number," she conceded, "I'll pass it on to Jo immediately, and she can decide to call you or not. That's the best I can do for you."

Liv glared at her but Elena straightened her spine, and didn't waver.

In short violent movements that rattled Bonnie's magic, Liv pulled out her purse, scribbled on a piece of paper, scrunched it into a ball and threw it at Elena.

She added a little juice to it, too because when Elena caught it, she yelped and dropped it.

"Ooops," Liv said in the fakest way possible. "Let's hope you have better luck catching the bouquet."

She turned on her heel and slammed out the door.

"Bitch," Elena muttered.

"Bitch," Bonnie murmured at exactly the same time.

Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Bonnie sat at Liv's dresser, hastily writing a thank you note. She hadn't seen the blonde witch since morning and guessed Liv was probably giving her work presentation right now. . She put a mention in her note, hoping that it went well. When she was done, she folded the paper and left it on Liv's pillow. Then she picked up the notes she had already written for Jo and Alaric and tucked them into her purse,

It was all rather old-fashioned, but Bonnie was raised by her grandmother after all.

She had written a note for Kai, as well. Something incoherent and stupid and she had burnt it the moment she was done, feeling a little cathartic as she flushed the ashes down the toilet.

For the millionth time that morning, she fought her mind not to dwell on what had happened between them a few hours ago. Almost happened.

But how could she stop thinking about it? About him? This whole house was drenched with his essence. She felt his presence everywhere, and if she didn't leave soon, she'd probably do something crazy.

Damon had come through – they had tickets to the 1245 flight – and Bonnie looked around the room to make sure she wasn't leaving anything behind. Her eyes caught on the set of grimoires on Liv's desk, where Bonnie had left them earlier. After chewing on her lip in thought, she quickly snatched the four at random and stuffed them into her suitcase, before she could change her mind. She'd send Liv a text from Virginia.

Of course, she could send one right now, asking for permission and probably get an answer before she left. But why risk Liv saying no?

Which reminded Bonnie of the strange way Liv had acted that morning, when she came to the nursery to call Bonnie. Frowning, Bonnie wondered what was up with that.

Or Kai's anger that morning in the kitchen. She never did quite find out what it was that she did – and she was sure that _she_ was the one that ticked him off. But why?

Was he mad that the Council had sort of come around to her in the end, and was sending that Douglass Asshat dude to Mystic Falls?

Or was it from their conversation the night before? That she had the audacity to come to Portland and ask him for help after everything that had happened between them?

Or maybe Kai was angry at her for purely existing, Bonnie thought bitterly. She could relate to that. Sometimes she felt that same way about him. Other times, she had no idea what she felt about him – only that it was extremely strong and mostly irrational.

She thought again about Liv informing her that Kai was around. And how _unsurprised_ Bonnie had been. Because subconsciously, she had known he was around, hadn't she? She had felt it. Up at the nursery, that sense of mingled dread and anticipation… it had been for Kai.

The realization that she was that attuned to him was alarming.

"You ready?"

She came out of her dark thoughts to realize that Damon was in the room, bouncing on her bed as he tipped his head towards her luggage.

Bonnie nodded, then slapped her forehead. "I haven't called the cab yet."

"Already did that, Bon Bon."

She could tell that he was pleased they were leaving. She couldn't blame him. He hadn't wanted to come; he had been against the idea of seeking the Gemini's help from the start; and then he had been proved right that his presence here was completely redundant. If this trip had been a heart-wrenching disappointment for Bonnie, it had been a complete waste of time for Damon.

Or had it…?

"…rumours of the Augustine Society being revived…"

Suddenly, Jo's words from that first evening popped into Bonnie's head. She had been too preoccupied then – was still very much preoccupied with everything going on – and had completely forgotten about it until now.

"Damon, have you heard…?"

"Heard what?"

She paused, staring at his mildly curious expression. Jo had said 'rumours'. Bonnie certainly hadn't heard anything about it and if Damon hadn't either – then she'd be tipping him off. Why should she? The last thing needed was Damon going off on a rampage to murder the members of the fledging Society. Definitely, the last thing _she_ needed was more blood on her hands.

"Bon, what's up?"

She shook her head. "Nothing," she said firmly. It was best to leave well enough alone. She resolved not to even mention it to anyone when they got back.

"Mmmm…" His eyebrows jumped a little. "You sure you're ready to come home? You could stay a little while. Your ticket's refundable."

Bonnie eyed him warily. "Of course, I'm ready. What's keeping me here?"

His eyebrows were going crazy now but whatever he had in mind, he opted to keep it himself, and as he stood to leave, Bonnie remembered something else. "What did you mean earlier in the kitchen? What you said about _him_ laying down the law in Mystic Falls?"

"Oh. That."

His tone was dismissive and Bonnie was immediately suspicious.

"I asked for full disclosure, Damon. Don't you even th-."

"Relax, Judgy. This is stuff that happened ages ago, nothing at all to do with our witchpire crisis."

"I'll be the judge of that. Spit it out."

"Liv is right. You really found your inner T-Rex, didn't you?" When she made a threatening move, he raised his hands placatingly. "OK, OK. If you really have to know every single nitty gritty of everything…"

She crossed her arms sternly.

He rolled his eyes and plumped back on the bed with a dramatic sigh. "Sometime last Fall, a gang I used to roll with back in the 70s came to town. Wanted to see their good friend Damon, party some, you know, the usual?"

He grimaced at the look on Bonnie's face. "Forgot for a moment who I was talking to. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the partying led to bodies. I try to get them in line, and that led to more bodies. Everyone's getting pretty tense. Stefan, Matt, Ty, Caroline… Heck, you'd probably have been getting tense yourself if you weren't too busy not giving a damn about us back then," he added, glibly ignoring the sharp glare threw his way. "So there I was in the middle of it, trying to smooth things over. Which would have been so much easier if I had a witch helping me. Not accusing anyone here. Just saying, you know. Just stating the facts."

"Enough with the guilt-tripping, Damon," she snipped.

"Like I said, just saying things as they are. So… around this time, I get a call from Portland."

He mimicked the call, the gist of which apparently was some high ranking Gemini, speaking with the coven leader's authority, had offered to send 'help' to Mystic Falls.

"The 'shoot first, ask questions later' kind of help."

In not so many words, it was made clear to the Salvatores that it would be in their best interest to solve the situation in Mystic Falls themselves and in the future, make sure that whatever went on in that town was never high-casualty enough to blink on the Gemini radar.

"I almost wanted to take him up on the offer. Let them come in to 'help'. Get a chance to break some Gemini skulls. But Reason, also known as Stefan Salvatore, prevailed."

"So what happened after that?" Bonnie asked quietly.

Damon shrugged. "I sent my old friends on a one-way ticket to Permanent Retirement; and ever since then, Stefan and I have managed to keep the mundane population safe enough not to warrant a Gemini intervention. We've had a couple of setbacks and it's been a struggle without a witch to help us. But we've managed."

Bonnie was silent.

"And you'd think that now that we're actually asking for help, he'd be jumping at the bit to give it…" He shook his head, then winked. "Ah well. At least we have you, don't we, B-Bomb?"

Bonnie forced back a smile. "Right."

"Don't you worry, BB, we're going to beat those guys. Show these Oregon stiffs how we kick ass in Virginia."

He got up again and bent to pick up her bags. He pretended to gasp. "I thought you dropped off the babies' gifts? How the hell are these heavier now than they were a few days ago?"

"Is someone letting himself go?" Bonnie murmured, more out of habit than anything.

"Maybe I should let you carry your own weight?" he retorted snidely.

"Do that, Damon, and there's no telling what you'll find when you open your backpack in Mystic Falls."

Their back and forth lasted a few more minutes but Bonnie won in the end – and he shuffled out of her room with her bags, muttering under his breath.

The moment he left, the weight of what he had just told her seemed to settle on Bonnie, and she remained sitting for a moment longer.

So Kai had threatened an intervention in Mystic Falls, enough to make Stefan and Damon take direct responsibility for keeping the town safe. She had thought all this while that it was mostly Stefan being Stefan – he had always been protective towards the town – and Damon going along with his brother more for the thrill of conflict than anything else. But now she realized that the extra motivation of keeping the Gemini away from the town had probably helped. She remembered Enzo's paranoid rants and, before that, gossip from the witches she had hung with briefly in Europe: once in a while, the Gemini coven would descend on extremely problematic towns and sweep out the supernatural population _en masse_ , skipping straight from arrest to executions, and jumping over the trial portion of supernatural criminal justice.

But if all this was true, how did the Gemini leader go from threatening that intervention a year ago to washing his hands off the town now that, as Damon admitted, it definitely needed his help?

It was so maddening, Bonnie realized with no small frustration. His inconsistency. His inability, his _resistance_ even to be someone that she could figure out easily and immediately dismiss. She felt like if she kept on getting pieces of the puzzle that was him, but she had no idea where they fit or even how large a picture she was supposed to reconstruct.[LN1]

With a defeated sigh, she stood up and pulled on her jacket. Her gaze snapped to the black band on her wrist. Yet another puzzle piece. She rubbed her thumb over it, felt the magic – _his_ magic – thrumming beneath.

 _What the hell is this thing?_

She remembered the look on his face when he cast it and shuddered. Then she frowned at herself, abruptly snapped her cuff closed, and stepped out of the room.

Alaric had long gone but Jo was just shuffling out of her room. They both could hear Damon on the steps, perversely walking and carrying Bonnie's luggage at a human pace, and grumbling all the way.

"Hey Bonnie," she said with a smile. "You really have to leave?"

"Yep." Feeling a bit self-conscious, Bonnie reached into her purse and handed over the notes. "Just a thank you to you guys for having us."

Jo's smile broadened as she received them. "Awww, this is so sweet. You know, Sheila used to do this, too."

Bonnie blinked as her heart filled with the familiar poignant feeling that always hit her at the mention of her grandmother. "I know."

Jo looked at her face, then pulled the younger woman into a hug. Bonnie returned it gratefully.

"Can't you stick around a little longer?" Jo asked, still in the hug. "You're not taking Summer classes, are you?"

Bonnie sighed, pulling away. "Mystic Falls will literally burn down if I don't get back soon."

Jo shrugged. "Let it."

It was a good joke but Bonnie laughed with a touch of bitterness. She stopped when she realized that the other woman was serious. "Tell me you're joking?"

"Why not, Bonnie? Don't you think you've done enough for that town? Enough for," she jerked her head in the direction of the stairs and Damon's general location. "Elena walked away from it all. Why can't you? Isn't it time you cut yourself some slack? Let someone else shoulder the burden?"

She had tried that, hadn't she? Bonnie thought bitterly. Turned her back on Mystic Falls for a year.

It had cost April Young her life.

But all she muttered now was, "Asking for help was kind of the idea when we came here." On an impulse, she asked, "Did you know that the Gemini mandated Damon and Stefan to protect the town?"

Jo was clearly surprised. "First I heard of it. Normally, the coven would _never_ ally or partner with vampires but… in this case, I guess it makes sense? The whole 'it takes a thief to catch a thief'… Sounds like something my brother would come up with."

"I guess it worked," Bonnie admitted. "The number of 'animal attacks' last year was at an all-time low. What I don't get is how the coven went from threatening to take over Mystic Falls to refusing to help now."

"Well, priorities are shifting all the time. Do you have any idea just how vastly spread supernatural activities are? The coven is stretched thin. Finite resources and infinite obligations and all that. But I bet you, if you ask any of your cop buddies to check the statistics of 'unexplained deaths' and 'animal attacks' nationwide, you'll see that it's dropped rapidly in the past year. Kai's getting stuff done. A lot of stuff, not just in Mystic Falls."

That was surprising news to Bonnie. And yet still, "but the heretics are uniquely a Gemini problem. They should get priority, Jo. No one else knows how to deal with them."

Jo's lips twisted, like if she was biting back something. But all she said was, "well, you're not exactly leaving here empty-handed, are you? You're getting help - a Councilman for that matter."

"We're getting an asshat in a suit."

Jo burst into laughter. "Yeah, that's a good way to describe Doug." Her eyes became soft. "Don't be too hard on him. Doug's not a bad sort."

"Really?" Bonnie asked, highly skeptical.

"He was friends with my younger siblings growing up. He and the twins served as Envoys together, and he must have been good to be in their team. From what Liv's told me, he and Luke even…" She blinked a little. "Well, he was a different person before. Then Luke died, and he got a seat on the Council. And he became a bit …"

"… of an asshat?" Bonnie suggested, but she smiled a little.

Jo returned her smile. "I'll give you a good reason to be friends with Doug," she whispered conspiratorially. "Kai doesn't like him. You two getting along will tick him off."

Bonnie fought – and won – against the blush that wanted to fill her face. "I don't care what Kai thinks."

"Really?" Jo said, with a mocking smile that was uncannily like her twin's.

"Yes," Bonnie said firmly.

Thankfully, Jo dropped it. She hooked her arm around Bonnie's and took her to the nursery to say good-bye to the twins.

The two little darlings were fast asleep, lying side by side in the same crib. Even though there were two cribs, on the rare occasions when the twins' schedules aligned, they tried to put them together.

"Bye girls," Bonnie whispered softly and on an impulse, she sent a little shimmer of happy magic above their heads. It shattered into tiny sparkles around the crib.

She glanced at Jo with a smile and saw the woman looking at her solemnly.

When they stepped out of the nursery, she turned to Jo at once, feeling awkward. "Hey, I hope you don't mind." She had no idea of the etiquette of magic use around little witches – one more thing to chalk up to her lack of proper witchy _Disciplina_. "It's just a little light show that they'll see when they wake. It'll fade in a day, maybe less."

Jo's serious face broke into a chuckle. "Oh no," she said. "That was me being silly. I was only…" She laughed again and looked a little embarrassed. "Sometimes, I miss magic, you know? I remember doing things like that for my younger sisters and brothers. It would have been nice to be able to do it for my own kids. Poor Martha and Rachel are going to be brought up by a pair of mundanes."

"Hey," Bonnie said. "I didn't know I was a witch until I was sixteen. My all-mundane dad raised me and I think I turned out pretty OK."

Jo gave her a grateful smile and Bonnie remembered what Liv had told her about the coven's initial intention to take the twins from Jo and Alaric.

What creeps.

"You were great with the twins, by the way," Jo said now. "So whenever you're ready to have kids of your own, just know you'll be fine."

Bonnie shrugged. "That's not likely to happen soon." Her love life was non-existent. After she got back from Europe – and _none_ of the randoms in Europe counted – she had probably gone on a total of three dates with a couple of guys in her major.

And before Europe, there had been…

Nothing, she told herself firmly. Nothing but a phenomenally bad idea and a waste of both their times. An impulsive and ultimately stupid decision based on a long night of magic, adrenaline and hormones.

OK, maybe more than one night.

She was blushing now. And from the meaningful look on Jo's face, the older woman knew exactly why.

Thankfully, she didn't probe. "Did I ever tell you that I once caught Damon in a staring contest with Rachel? He said he was scanning her for Evils."

Laughter sputtered out of Bonnie. "Well, it takes one to know one, I guess?"

The two women were struggling to contain their chuckles and didn't hear the soft footsteps behind them.

"Bonnie Bennett, is it?"

An unfamiliar voice wheezed the question from behind her.

Bonnie spun around and found herself looking at an old lady with hair almost as white as her skin and bright blue, bird-like eyes that stared hard at Bonnie with disconcerting curiosity.

Jo stepped up to stand between them. "Bonnie, this is Gab. She stops by on occasion to help with the twins. She and my family go a long way back."

"Nice to meet you," Bonnie said, shaking hands.

Gab's small fingers, ringed with stones the same shade as her eyes, were surprisingly firm and she peered hard into Bonnie's eyes as if she was trying to see through them to Bonnie's skull.

"'was _her_ nanny, too, and all the other Parker bunnies that their folks kept breeding. Liv don't remember me 'cos by the time she was born, Micah'd pop out one 'n' give it to Jo–"

 _"-right in the delivery room._ Yeah, I remember, Gab. I was there." Jo said, dryly.

"Sounds kind of sexist," Bonnie muttered. "What happened to your twin?"

A cloud passed over Jo's face. "No one was going to allow Kai anywhere near witch babies." She saw the way Bonnie looked, and smiled airily. "Which was a pity because the times we went behind our parents back and let Kai help, he was better with them than me."

Bonnie tried to return the smile, but the sick feeling inside her barely allowed her to stretch her lips.

She felt a tug and looked at Gab with a gasp. The old woman was still holding Bonnie's hand and still glaring up at her. "Known this family for a long time. Messed up family. Don't need nobody's help making a bigger mess of things, know what I mean?"

Her grip was becoming painful, rings digging into Bonnie's flesh. "Ouch!" Bonnie said, yanking her hand away.

"Gabby." Jo spoke up sharply.

"Hush, child. Bit of Parker in me, too and don't you forget it. I speak my mind. Always have. Always will. Did it to ya pop. Did it to ya ma. Did it to _ya_ grandma, Bonnie Bennett," she said and Bonnie started. "I do to ya brother, his High and Mightyness 'n' I'll definitely do it to ya, little Bonnie."

"You knew my grandmother?" Bonnie whispered.

Gab sniffed. "You go ask your Sheila if _she_ knew Gabrielle O'Sullivan," she declared, puffing herself up.

Jo looked mortified. "Gab…" she said, despairingly.

Bonnie stared at the old woman. "My grandmother's dead."

Gab scowled. "So? She can still talk, can't she?"

And with that, she shuffled into the nursery.

Bonnie turned to Jo with what must have been a "what the-?" look all over her face.

Jo laughed and hugged her, apologetically. "Oh my goodness, Bonnie, I'm so sorry! But she really does treat everyone like that. Even my father." She hooked arms with Bonnie again and they started walking down the corridor to the steps.

"You guys let her watch the twins? Isn't she a bit?" Bonnie pointed a finger at her temple and twirled it in a tight circle.

Jo shrugged. "She's old, and half the people she's known in her life, from your Grams to her brother, are dead. Can you blame her? In her own way, she's probably saner than you and I and she is a brilliant witch. Most importantly though, she's one of the few people that didn't give Alaric and me any grief when we came here." Her eyes suddenly narrowed. "I'd be stupid to trust any of the other witches that offered. They'd probably hex Alaric and me in our sleep and steal Rachel and Martha."

Bonnie shuddered. "Your coven is so…"

"Disturbing? Scary? Evil?"

"You said it not me."

"It won't be for long, not if Kai has anything to do about it." Bonnie stumbled a little but Jo held her firmly. "My Dad was Praetor way longer than he ought to have been. It affected the coven. Now Kai's in charge and he has some great ideas. He's been shaking things up for a while now and he's going to do even more once we get the coven to fully accept him. It's been an uphill journey, yes. I keep thanking heavens every-day that Kai had the sense to make Dad a member of the Council. _I_ thought it was a bad idea myself but it's turned out to be for the best. Who would have thought? Once Kai and my Dad were probably going to kill each other and now, they're a team. You never know with people, right?"

Bonnie said nothing.

Jo pressed on. "I'd never have imagined I would ever say this about my brother but he just may be the best thing that's happened to our coven."

They were almost at the bottom of the stairs and Bonnie had a clear view of Damon, standing on the porch besides their bags, looking out for the cab. Just a few steps to the door and Bonnie would escape Jo and her Kai Appreciation monologue.

But when they reached the last step, Jo held her firm, stalling her to a stop. She turned so that she was looking right down at Bonnie's morose face.

"Kai's going to find a way to help you, Bonnie. Depend on that."

 _Can you please shut up about him?_ Bonnie thought, despairingly.

Instead, she replied in what she hoped was a neutral voice, "Liv already explained to me about coven politics and I do understand. The Council recommended not to get involved with Mystic Falls and he has to…"

"Kai doesn't give a crap about the Council," Jo said with a short laugh. "And he's going to find a way to help _you_ not Mystic Falls."

Bonnie felt her heart flutter with hope and she damped it down at once.

Feigning indifference, she answered, "Thanks for saying this, Jo but I'm not going to hold my breath. Besides, we've," – and she jerked her head towards Damon – "been handling things for years before we even heard about the Gemini. I think we'll do just fine."

Jo frowned. "Or you could just go to the airport now and change your flight to Europe. Visit Elena. Give yourself a vacation."

Bonnie smiled. That wasn't such a bad idea. The three of them - Bonnie, Elena and Caroline had had a blast the previous summer - and she told Jo so. "Elena's probably in the middle of some crisis zone at the moment. But afterwards? After all this crazy? Definitely." Her smile turned mischievous. "We can all go. I'm sure three vampires can wrangle up tickets and visas for all of us, and the babies."

Jo just shook her head and unlinked her elbow from Bonnie's. Then she gave her a little shove towards the door. "I'll hold you to that someday, Bonnie Bennett." And they went outside to meet Damon.

The taxi pulled up just as Jo finished saying her goodbye to her husband's best friend.

"You're always welcome back. We'll miss you."

"Aw, Jo," he said with an uncharacteristically fond smile and hugged her. "Had a great time last night?" he quipped.

Bonnie bowed her head in shame.

"The best," Jo shot back at once.

"Did he do that thing with the lemon?" Damon asked in a loud whisper. "'Cos I told him that."

Bonnie groaned.

Jo patted his cheek. "Ask him about that thing with the jam."

His eyebrows went crazy. "You know about the thing with the jam?"

Jo winked. " _I_ taught him the thing with the jam."

And on that happy note, she gave a laughing Bonnie another hug, blew a kiss at a dazed-looking Damon and flounced into the house.

"You know I'm going to have to kill Alaric and steal you from him now, don't you?" he shouted after her when he had managed to pick his jaw from the floor.

As they piled into the car, he asked Bonnie, his eyebrows jerking in earnestness, "Remind me again why _I_ didn't date her?"

It got boring fast and she gave him an aneurysm to get some peace for the rest of the trip to the airport.

* * *

 _May 2014_

Latent magic tingled against Bonnie's fingers as she manually configured the Gilbert device. She had already set up the candles in preparation for the first vampire to walk into the War Room for testing.

She didn't expect said vampire to prance in bare-chested, shirt hooked with one finger over his shoulder, and his jeans low on his hips. Bonnie nearly levitated one of Matt's freshly whittled stakes into his bare white chest.

"What the hell, Damon?"

His leer was wide enough to split his face into two. "Like what you see?"

Bonnie threw the stake. His vamp speed just got him out of the way on time.

"Whew! That's new," he chortled, mock-confused. "Women usually react differently to the sight of nearly naked me."

"You idiot," Bonnie hissed. " _Caroline_ is upstairs." Was he really that insensitive?

The leer slipped out his face at that, something like contrition taking its place. "Uh, sorry. My bad." He turned defensive. "But I heard you were looking for a vampire guinea pig to test some of the Gilbert devices on."

"And you thought I needed a naked Guinea pig?"

He leered again, but only half-heartedly. "If you want to be thorough…"

"Put your damn clothes on, Damon."

He heaved a big sigh, then made a production of twisting around to pull on his shirt. Bonnie snuck a quick glance – she was only human after all – and gasped.

"What is that?"

"What?" he asked, half-in and half-out of his shirt.

She turned him around – ignoring his lewd quipping at that – to get a closer look.

It was raised skin, thicker and whiter than the rest, low on his back. Its covered area was about the size of her palm and its shape was like an…

"Oh, my old war scar?"

"Your old scar?"

"From, you know, the time I was an idealistic human, fighting for the wrong side." His voice was uncharacteristically bitter. She looked up at him as he made a face.

She stared back down at the scar. "You've _always_ had this scar?"

"Sure thing, Bonnie. Most women who've had the pleasure of my company are intimately aware of it." She didn't need to look to know that he was leering again.

She ignored it, her eyes focused on the scar. She and Damon hadn't exactly spent their time in the Prison World prancing around half-naked in front of each other; but it had been a perpetual May and skin had been shown once in a while. Even before then, surely Elena's one-time boyfriend must have tagged along to a beach-party or two? Shouldn't something this size and this prominent have jumped out at anyone?

Her palm hovered over it, and she felt a tinny tremor of magic. From the scar? Or an echo from the Gilbert device that she had just fiddled with?

"You're freaking me out, Witchy. Or checking me out? I can't tell the difference."

Bonnie stepped back. "Sorry. Just a little bit… Of course, it must have been as you said, right? You can't get scars on vampire skin."

"Yep." He turned around, tucking in his shirt and grinned up at her.

"Unless," she said quietly, "you got some kind of magic brand on yourself. Like a tattoo for vamps?"

He stared. "Why would I want to mar all this perfection?"

"It's a very neat scar, Damon," she said carefully. "In fact, it doesn't look much like a scar. It looks more like a brand… in the shape of the Viking symbol for the letter 'E'." The moment she said it, she almost bit her tongue but it was too late.

Shutters fell over his face.

Ah, one of those beautifully awkward moments where she knew that she had crossed a line – and crossing _back_ was probably going to be even _more_ awkward than just digging her heels into the mire of invasiveness that she had stumbled her way into.

But as the saying went: in for a dime, in for a dollar. Bonnie cleared her throat, trained her gaze on his left ear, and shoved her big nose right in.

"Before we left for Europe, you came crying to me about how you planned on taking the Cure with Elena and you didn't understand why she had suddenly ended things…"

Damon said nothing. He didn't have to, because his eyebrows were clearly doing all the talking for him.

"You don't talk about it at all. No ranting. No venting. It's almost creepy, really. Heck, when I came back from Europe, I half-expected to find half of the town's population in a cemetery or something."

Still more dead silence.

"Which, by the way, is a _good_ thing. I'm actually kind of impressed? I mean, a tattoo, magical or not, is pretty much standard fare for a bad breakup. Heaven knows that the Damon I knew before… Well, when you were having a bad day, you made sure that everybody else was having an even worse one…"

"Finished yet?" He asked, his voice level and pleasant.

She gulped, then nodded.

"So are we taking turns in this little tête-à-tête?"

"Damon…"

"I've done all this sharing – or rather, you've done all this sharing for me. Now Busy B, it's your turn to share. Let's start with the real reason why you shot down Stefan's idea that we page Portland for backup."

She inhaled sharply. "I said I was finished."

"Or even better, let's call everyone back and have a revote. All it takes is just one disgruntled vamp to change his mind and hey presto! the Calvary will be here with bells and whistles. I suddenly don't mind a little spontaneous Class of 1994 reunion. You, me, and one Malac-"

"That's enough, Damon!"

Her head pounded with tension.

Damon, on the other hand, looked serene. He smiled at her, almost kindly.

"You don't poke my scar and I don't poke yours, BonBon. Got it?"

Her lips tightened. "Got it."

He hopped on the table, knocking down one of her candles. "So… let's get started."

* * *

 _June 2014_

The flight from Portland was peaceful – no turbulence, clear skies – and across the aisle, Damon was sleeping like the dead. Bonnie had been restless all through out, trying to distract herself with the inflight entertainment but only ended up with her mind wandering to things – and people – she'd rather not be thinking about.

 _His fingers lined up with hers, his own long, slender and rubbing slightly against the spaces between her own…_

 _His fingers in her hair, wrapped so tightly that she could only move her face a little as his mouth devoured her own…_

 _His fingers deep inside her, his rings literally working magic in her core…_

She turned to the window, blood rising in her cheeks, shifting in her seat, and said silent thanks that she had the row to herself.

It was evening by the time she and Damon hiked the ten miles to where the Camaro was packed. They had had one of their spats when they were leaving Virginia and so to spite her, even though he could obviously afford it, he had deliberately not paid for airport packing. In between bitching under her breath as she panted along behind him, she called to check in with their friends.

Caroline's and Stefan's numbers were both busy. Ignoring Damon's string of pornographic speculations as to why this was the case, Bonnie tried Matt's number and he picked up on first ring.

"Bonnie!" he said with his usual warmth. "Am I glad to hear from you."

"Hey Matt," she said with a smile. "How're you doing?"

"Great now that you're back. How was your trip?"

She told him, but she kept the pleasantries brief, moving the conversation quickly to the latest murder. She put the phone on speaker so Damon could chip in.

"We've got a little more information about Judith Stewart. She was an unorthodox pharmacist in Nebraska. She had just opened shop there about a year ago. The plane ticket in her wallet brought her to Virginia the night before she died."

"What was she doing here, all the way from Nebraska?" Damon wandered, voicing Bonnie's own question.

"No idea yet. We're going through her things to find something."

Judith Stewart had been found in a motel room near the town.

"There's a pattern here, I just can't see it," Matt continued.

"Well, keep your deerskin cap on, Mattlock…" Damon started, and then trailed off as he grinned at Bonnie. "Get it? _Matlock_?"

Bonnie frowned at him, wondering who was the butt of this joke – her or Matt? "No, I don't." She turned her attention to Matt. "Any sightings of the heretics?"

"None whatsoever. I'm worried, Bon. The days before an attack, we'd spot them hanging at a corner, or in a bar, or at a rave. Somewhere. Now. Nothing."

"They're planning something," Bonnie concluded, apprehension filling her. Instinctively, she glanced around her but the street lights on the fairly empty airport road just blinked innocently back.

"Great," Damon said, his eyebrows shooting out in opposite directions. "Alaric's and Jo's anti-vamp house had started making me feel almost human. I'm spoiling for a fight."

* * *

 _June 2013_

The soon-to-be Dr. Jo Saltzman's bachelorette party was over – well, if one called three women and an empty bar a party. Of course, if Bonnie had taken up the offer that the gorgeous hunk of a stripper had clearly been offering before he left, she'd probably be having her own party of two right now. It was almost a shame, because Elena and Jo were all respectably taken women. She felt like if she was letting the team down.

But the carefree party girl mode – a relic from her old cheerleading days – had long timed out and Bonnie was running on empty, sipping her drink quietly and letting the fake, bright smile on her face fool Elena and Jo into thinking that she gave a damn about the ongoing conversation.

It was something about Elena and Damon and the cure. Honestly, if Bonnie had realized that bringing the cure to them was going to cause such drama, she'd have left the stupid thing in Nova Scotia, circa 1994.

"What's your opinion, Bonnie?" Elena asked at last.

 _About what?_ Bonnie took a big gulp of her glass and tried to think fast.

Thankfully, Elena's phone buzzed then. "It's Damon," she whispered to the others and looking tense, she slipped out to the back of the bar.

Bonnie made a face and hid it behind her glass.

Jo reached out a hand to grab hers.

"You doing OK, Bon?" she asked.

Bonnie grinned broadly. "Just peachy."

Jo cocked her head in a gesture that reminded Bonnie of her brother. The grin wavered.

"I called my med school classmate. He didn't get a call from you."

"Oh, you mean the shrink?" Bonnie said casually. "I forgot about that. I don't think I really need one, you know what I mean?"

So what if she couldn't remember the last time she had a good night's sleep? If it wasn't nightmares, it was insomnia – the sound of silence, and her own internal musings spinning round and round and round in her brain until she passed out.

She'd get over it. She was Bonnie Bennett. That was what she did.

Jo frowned. "I stand by what I said when you came in for your physical. The ordeal you went through – the isolation – there's a reason why solitary confinement is a method of punishment for hardened criminals. And that's not counting what my brother put you through. And before that? Your time as the anchor? What you must have gone through…?"

Bonnie laughed hollowly. "Are you sure you're not trying to take your friend's job? I think you could do some part-time as a shrink yourself."

Jo's hand on hers became tight.

"Ouch?"

"You did a lot for me, for my entire coven when you went back for Kai." Bonnie froze at the name. "And that was just you going back. I didn't expect the heretics… I _promise_ you, Bonnie, I had no idea they were awake. Damon and Elena assured me they weren't and I couldn't imagine that Kai would, for any reason, wake them."

"I don't think he did that on purpose," Bonnie said, squirming.

She didn't want to think about how Kai had been when she found him. About what he must have gone through before she did.

She had had Qestiya's magic in addition to her own to fight those creatures and even then she had barely made it back alive.

"Turns out that I owed Kai my life anyway," she mumbled. "So you gave me a chance to pay him back." Her voice wavered a little. The confused emotions that usually assailed her whenever she dwelt on this - on the idea that Kai, _that anyone had almost died saving her life_ \- threatened to overwhelm her.

"Bonnie?"

She took a long draw from her glass, waited until the burn pushed away that dark storm of emotional turmoil for another day. Ignoring the voice whispering _coward_ in her head, she smiled at Jo. "Besides, we've had this conversation already. You thanked me. You'll name your firstborn after me. Yada yada yada."

"I'm not thanking you again," Jo said, then she laughed. "OK, maybe I am thanking you a little. But I'm also saying that you need a break, Bonnie. You've been through a lot in the past … years now, if Elena's stories are anything to go by. I went through one traumatic event and I gave up my magic, changed my name and ran away from my family for eighteen years."

"Sounds wonderful," Bonnie said and she was only being half-sarcastic.

"Sheila never wanted this life for you," Jo said sadly. "She did just about everything she could to protect you from the supernatural."

"Maybe instead of spending all that effort protecting me, she should have spent some more teaching me how to protect myself," Bonnie said bitterly.

Jo leaned back in her chair, folded her arms and stared at Bonnie.

Bonnie bit her lip, feeling ashamed. "Sorry. I shouldn't have talked about Grams like that. Sometimes I feel like she was the only person who ever cared about me." Sadness washed over her. "I miss her. Yet sometimes I'm so angry with her, you know?" She sighed, and shifted in her seat. "Look, I don't want to spoil your day. I guess the party's over. You have your beauty sleep to catch up with…"

"It's good to be angry," Jo said, cutting her short. "It's good to _feel_ angry at Sheila. And Damon. And Caroline. Stefan. Even Elena."

Bonnie shifted, guiltily under Jo's prying eyes.

"Anger is _healthy_. My goodness, Bonnie, you were stuck in a Prison World for half a year and your friends –"

"Good evening, Miss Bennett. Miss Laughlin."

The two women looked up in surprise. There had been no sound of a door opening. Or of footsteps walking across the empty bar.

The moment they saw the woman who stood above them, her posture ramrod straight, oozing old-time propriety even in her slacks and shirt, Jo and Bonnie sprang to their feet at once.

Lily Salvatore smiled, but her eyes on Bonnie were like ice. "I was out for a walk and I saw you through the window and I thought to myself, 'I know her. That young lady broke my trust and _ruined my life_.'"

"I never meant to hurt you, Lily," Bonnie said quietly, her magic rushing to her fingers. Slowly, she started edging nearer Jo. Something nagged at her thoughts, but she couldn't think past getting herself and Jo safely through this moment. "I was only ever going back to get Kai. It's over now. The Ascendant is no longer in my possession."

"Surely we can retrieve the device and bring my family home?" Lily said, and there was a touch of desperation in her voice.

Bonnie shook her head. The idea of those _things_ getting loose was enough to make her skin crawl.

She was now close enough to Jo that her shoulders knocked against the other woman. She tried to move the few inches needed to shield Jo completely from Lily; but Jo must have realized what she was trying to do because she pushed back against Bonnie.

"Not with my blood. Not with any help from me or Kai," Bonnie said coldly. "Your so-called family are monsters and we're never letting them out."

The veneer of propriety slipped off like a mask to reveal the monster beneath – red eyed, red veined and Lily lunged forward.

Bonnie was ready, her hands already curled up and aneurysm after aneurysm hit the vampire, making her scream and fall to her knees.

"It's over, Lily. Let it go," Bonnie warned, "and get out!"

Lily stretched out a hand to the table near her for support, her other hand still holding her head. She raised her head enough to stare at Bonnie with pain-filled eyes. "Your mistake," she hissed.

Then her hand flew out and pain exploded in Bonnie's neck.

Bonnie screamed and she grasped her neck, swaying, the spell breaking as the pain radiated like a spider's web from her neck to every part of her body. There was something there – a dagger, a _pin_ , and her blood was gushing through her fingers. She fell to her knees, her hand on the cold floor, the only thing keeping her from falling to her face.

She was suddenly choking and when she coughed, blood spurted out.

After surviving death twice, the agony of being the Anchor, a prison world and the psychopath it was built for, Bonnie Bennett was going to bleed to death on the floor of the grill from a fucking _pin_.

Lily's steps were light, measured – still walking in that precise, finishing school trained elegance – as she stepped towards her. But she still had to go past Jo.

Bonnie heard the bride-to-be scream and tried to summon her magic but she couldn't. She was in too much pain. She was losing too much blood. She couldn't save herself. And she certainly couldn't save Jo and her baby.

Too late, far too late, the memory of a nightmare gripped Bonnie.

 _This is how I die._

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt the edges of her vision begin to darken. Above her, Jo and Lily were talking but Bonnie couldn't hear them above the rush of blood in her veins. Her arm, the one that was keeping her face from the floor, was trembling now with the effort of holding her weight.

Finally her elbow slackened and she was about to land on the floor…

When strong arms caught her, lifting her from the ground.

Bonnie gazed up into a pair of stormy blue eyes. They were the last things she saw before the darkness overcame her.

* * *

Whatever dark reputation the Ghiaccis bore amongst their fellow Gemini, cowardice was not one of their flaws. The family of three that had turned up with Matt Donovan earlier that day had seemed more in awe of being hosted by the Praetor himself, than they were afraid that Joshua's mad boy would murder them in their sleep. It wasn't Kai's choice to have company, but the wedding of Joshua Parker's long-lost daughter – who had resurfaced after nearly two decades and somehow managed to survive her Merge Ceremony – was the stuff of dreams for his gossipy coven and now that Joshua Parker had called the exiles back, every Gemini in the world seemed to be in Virginia this weekend. There was only so much magic could do about unavailable hotel rooms.

Kai left them pottering through his flat, and wandered the streets, his plans chasing each other through his mind. There were a dozen ways it all could go wrong, and a dozen more it could work and still blow up in his face. But he was too close now to back down and he needed…

He needed an outlet for the fury that had been building inside him since his first horror-filled night in 1903. Apparently one of the down-sides of pesky emotions was that it laced the feelings he was already so familiar with – rage, bitterness, the need for vengeance – with an added bite of hurt that elevated them to the power of infinity. Downside or upside, depending on which self-help book he read. Kai didn't much care.

One way or the other, heads would roll for what had been done to him.

 _And what about what you did to others? Whose heads rolled for that?_

 _Shut it, Luke._

He turned the corner of an abandoned newsstand, and that was when he first felt the warm stirrings of recognition that he only ever associated with…

His steps faltered. No. They had managed to stay out of each other's paths since their escape – _her rescue of him_ – from 1903, and it had been long enough that the thought of inevitably bumping into her at his sister's wedding tomorrow plagued him with both dread and anticipation.

Not for the first time, Kai asked himself what _she_ would think about his plans – and not for the first time, he shut down that idiotic thought furiously. Like he gave a damn what she thought of him. Not anymore.

He turned on his heel, not interested in more self-torture this evening, when he recognized something else – her offensive magic spiralling all around her.

It was perverse the Pavlovian way everything in him snapped to in reaction to _that_.

Had no one ever taught the woman how to shield properly? He wondered furiously, as he turned back. Just to see, he told himself, what tomfoolery she had got herself into now. And maybe he'd lend a hand, or maybe he'd just conjure himself some popcorn and watch.

Her casting – an aneurysm, he recognized as he drew nearer and nearer to the source, the local bar – ceased abruptly. Even before he recognized his own twin's aura and the way it radiated fear, he had already started running.

He burst through the doors of the bar, and the first thing he saw was Bonnie seconds from smashing her head on the floor. He caught her in the nick of time, lifting her into his arms. Later he would think about how light, how _right_ , she felt in them, only the second time he had ever held her without trying to actively hurt her. But right now all he could think of was that she had lost so much blood she was almost as pale as him, and her pulse was an erratic bird beating in her throat.

All this went through his head as he whirled to face the person responsible for this, who was using his sister as a body shield.

He briefly locked gazes with Jo, was surprised at the relief shining from her eyes, and then shifted to a few inches from her face.

Oddly familiar pale blue eyes glittered at him with malice. "Good evening, Mr. Parker. We haven't been properly introduced although I have made several unsuccessful attempts to seek audience with you."

Lily Salvatore, ripper.

It was amusing really, that they had never actually met until now. It hadn't been so long ago that they were swapping jail cells, courtesy of her son and her son's BFF, the witch she had just injured.

Kai couldn't even savor the supreme ironic karma of it all.

Not when Bonnie was bleeding in his arms and a _ripper_ had his sister in the grip of her claws.

"Been a bit busy of late," he hissed, "but you sure got my attention now."

His mind was working double-time. He was silently casting a healing spell over Bonnie's unconscious body; at the same time, he was trying to figure out an exit for all three of them – and coming up blank. Jo's neck was in the grip of a madwoman and Bonnie's lifeblood was spurting out of her throat like water from a tap. Kai was a gambling man but even he won't risk these odds.

"You will provide me the Ascendant, Mr. Parker, or I will end the life of your pregnant sister," Lily Salvatore warned.

Another irony. Kai had an Ascendant for her alright, just not the one she wanted.

He concentrated on the mental recitation of the spell, while holding steady eye contact with the vampire.

"You're going to let my sister go or I will boil your blood where you stand," he said conversationally.

She glared at him, her grip on Jo tightening. Jo's eyes widened but they were more filled with anger than fear.

"You'll risk your sister's life?"

"It's not a risk," Kai said levelly, keeping his rage at bay, lying through his teeth and willing her not to call his bluff. Desperation was building in him. He could feel Bonnie's essence slipping out of her. His spell was not working. Time was running out.

Lily's brows shifted rapidly – apparently her equally odious son got that annoying habit honestly – as she visibly calculated her options; and then with a snarl, she flung Jo against the wall.

Kai's hand reached out to break his twin's fall – the distraction the vampire had obviously counted on to flee safely and flee, she did.

Jo slid slowly to the ground, landing on her tailbone with a little jolt. Then she was on her feet and running towards Kai and Bonnie.

He was already placing Bonnie on the floor beside him, folding her hands over her chest. She was so silent, so pale, so _cold_. She was still breathing… but barely. The bleeding in her neck had slowed but he didn't know whether it was from his magic or because she had already lost so much blood.

His hands were shaking.

Jo knelt on Bonnie's other side, across from him, and looked at him with horror on her face. "Kai…"

"Help me," he snapped as he conjured what he needed – candles, chalk, moss… They landed with a thump by his side.

"My doctor's bag is in the car. Get that, too," Jo said as she hurriedly started drawing the marks around Bonnie.

"I don't need your medicine, Jo…" he hissed.

"I know you were trying to heal her while you talked to Lily and it wasn't working," she hissed back. "This is Sheila's granddaughter. You do your magic. I do mine. _Now get me my bag!_ "

He spared a moment to call for the stupid bag. It came flying through the door of the bar, smashing the glass to land beside his sister. Then he started pouring everything he had into calling back Bonnie's essence.

It wasn't working.

Kai's heart was pounding from exertion, his chanting quivering a little by the twentieth iteration. A drop of blood landed on Bonnie's shimmery pink blouse, then another. Jo raised her head from staunching Bonnie's neck wound and pointed a shaky hand at his nose. He touched his face instinctively and noted absentmindedly that it was wet, and his fingers were now red.

He felt faint. But whether that was from the magic he was expending or from feeling Bonnie's life slipping away, he couldn't tell.

"What's going on?"

The twins turned to look at Elena Gilbert walking into the bar with her phone in her hand and confusion on her face.

Kai stretched – more like flung – out his hand and dragged the vampire with magic. She skidded to a stop on her knees beside Bonnie.

"What the –" she yelled then froze at the sight of Bonnie. "Oh my god, Bonnie!"

"Your blood. Now." Kai snarled but even before he finished, Elena had already torn out her veins and was pushing her wrist into Bonnie's mouth.

Kai's eyes were fixed on Bonnie's face, waiting for the colour to return.

It didn't. Her breathing was so faint now, he couldn't hear it. He could only tell from the infinitesimally slow rise and fall of her chest. She was fading.

Jo's phone was in her hand and he could hear, distantly like from a radio in another room, her conversation with the 911 dispatcher.

Elena pulled her wrist back, horror on her face. "Bonnie!"

"Give her more!" he shouted, pushing her wrist back down.

"It should be working by now," Elena cried, yanking her hand back. She bit through her wrist again – the wound had healed – and returned it to Bonnie's mouth. Then she looked at Kai and Jo with horror.

A split second later, Kai realized why.

Bonnie's heart had stopped.

 _No. No. No. No._

Jo's hands were pushing Elena's wrist away, and she was tipping Bonnie's head back and breathing into her mouth. "Elena, her chest."

In a blur of movement, Elena was on the other side, now kneeling beside Kai and bent over Bonnie with her hands locked on her chest in the style he vaguely recognised – what must have been eons ago – from Jo practising on him.

They were counting. Jo's face determined, Elena's desperate.

There was a storm in his head. Water crashing and dying against the rocks beneath. He watched them with a sense of surrealism. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.

 _No._

The windows started cracking, tiny little slivers that they barely heard over their own bated breathing, until they shattered and burst, glass flying every which way.

Jo and Elena looked up then, wide eyes full of fear. But, Kai noted absentmindedly, they didn't lose count, they kept going at the CPR.

Bonnie's body spasmed under his sister's and the vampire's ministrations but otherwise, she was still. The delicate features of her face were frozen in a way he had never seen before, not even the times in the 1994 prison world that he had spied sleeping, in the months before he made his presence known to her, when he thought his fascination with her had only lied in the fact that she was the first living, breathing person he had seen in nearly two decades, and his ticket out of his hell.

 _Bonnie_.

The upturned tables slid across the room, smashing into the walls.

"Kai!" his sister shouted. "Control!"

He climbed to his feet, his hands rising to grip his head, his fingers tugging at his hair. The chairs climbed up with him, into the ceiling and bounced off it, smashing into the ground. A storm was rising in the bar, wind whipping from the centre and catching the debris around it in a narrow cyclone.

" _Get out!"_ Jo screamed.

No. He couldn't leave Bonnie. Not again. Not this time.

As if she could read his mind, his sister shouted, "You're not helping her by being here, Kai. You have to go!"

She was right, a small sane part of his head realized, watching that cyclone get wider and wider. Very soon the debris would be smashing against the people that were fighting for Bonnie's life.

 _Bonnie_.

He stared at her tightly shut lids and it hit Kai like a moving train would hit a jumper – the thought that it was very possible he would never see those fiery green eyes open again.

He turned on his heel and fled.

* * *

 **AN** : Edited by the lovely and talented **thenameismaynard** a.k.a. **keenan24** of "By and Down" infamy. Thank you to everyone that wrote and replied, for sticking with this story so far! And special thanks to the reviewers who've left feedback for the re-write. I really appreciate your appreciating (lol) the changes between the old and the new versions. Next update should be up very soon! I've got a nice little stockpile of chapters thanks to my dear beta. :D


	9. 9

**CHAPTER NINE**

* * *

 _June 2013_

It was less than three hours before the nuptial ceremony between Jo Laughlin and Alaric Saltzman was to commence and Caroline Forbes was sending frantic texts to Bonnie and Matt asking about the whereabouts of the floral arrangements.

Bonnie texted back something about a flat tire and turned off her phone before Caroline blew it up.

Sitting at the passenger's side of Matt Donovan's truck, she threw her friend a wry look that he returned.

"If Kai or the heretics don't kill me, then Caroline will for sure," Bonnie muttered and Matt laughed.

He pulled the truck into a short term parking slot in front of Kai's apartment building. Bonnie stared up at the nondescript, standard building with some surprise. She hadn't imagined Kai living somewhere so… ordinary. Not that she had given it much thought, that is. But if she had, she probably would have imagined his home having at least a chimney – somewhere to send the smoke from his cauldron.

She shook her head, laughing silently at herself as she and Matt hopped out of the car.

The flowers lay beside Matt's bag of weapons, and together they both selected the most practical ones for the task at hand – a gun with wooden bullets, tiny Molotov cocktails of vervain water and gasoline, and a mini-bow that he could put under his jacket. He wanted to take the more powerful crossbow until Bonnie reminded him that neither of them were vampires and it would be hard, without compulsion, to explain to Kai's neighbors why a man the size of a linebacker was lurking around their corridors with a loaded weapon.

With one last guilty glance at the flowers, she led the way to the front door.

Getting through the security code at the main entrance door was tricky. Bonnie couldn't pick it in view of security cams, nor think of a discrete spell that won't do permanent damage to the door; so Matt had had to punch a random apartment number and pretend to be a delivery guy. Compared to that, getting through Kai's apartment door was a breeze. No cams in the passageway took off the pressure of discretion. A quick detection spell identified an empty apartment and a weak boundary ward. So weak that she disabled it with a simple power spike. The lock was a joke, nothing compared to hot wiring a car. She pulled out a hairpin, grinning slightly at the stunned look on Matt's face.

He recovered quickly, and moved to block her, his eyes scanning for nosy neighbors.

"Where did Bonnie Bennett learn how to pick a lock?" He whispered from the corner of his mouth.

Bonnie twisted the pin with her teeth placed it inside the lock, and wiggled expertly. "I was stuck on an empty planet for months with no magic, Matt. Kicking down doors doesn't come naturally to a woman my size. So I learnt some new skills."

The lock clicked and the door fell open. Bonnie stepped in, then turned back in surprise when Matt still lingered outside. He was staring at the apartment door across from them with a frown on his face.

She touched his hand, and when he looked at her, she raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He frowned. "I'm not sure but… I saw a shadow pass across the peephole. I think someone might have spotted us."

She cursed softly.

He shook his head quickly. "I said I'm not sure. Probably imagined it."

"Better safe than sorry," she murmured. She whispered a quick _Ocludus_ in the general vicinity of the other door.

"What was that?"

"A distraction spell. It'll last an hour. We'll be long gone by then."

Gently, she shut the door and they were fully in Kai Parker's apartment easy as pie.

It said something about the psyche of the resident that he was all but inviting danger into his home. And not, Bonnie told herself, that he was brave. Or even that he was stupid. But that he knew that there was nothing outside that could be more dangerous than himself.

She shuddered to imagine what Kai would think – what would Kai _do_ if he ever found out that she broke into his apartment.

While driving, they had spoken to Tyler and he had confirmed that Kai, and the rest of the Gemini coven were at the venue. So Matt and Bonnie expected his house to be empty. Still, she stretched out her senses again as they stepped further inside.

He wasn't there – no one was. But she could sense magic lingering in the air. Casting had been done there, recently. Nothing potent, nothing remarkable. Just ordinary magic – levitation, cleaning; it even seemed like someone used a spell to fix a last-minute wardrobe malfunction. Day to day magic, done casually, carelessly even and it brushed against the edges of Bonnie's aura and hit her with an unexpected pang of wistfulness.

"You said some Gemini witches were here?" She asked Matt.

"Three at least. Looked like family," he said, distractedly as he made a beeline towards the large screen TV and complicated game center taking up most of the space in the living room.

The interior of the flat was furnished in the typical bachelor pad style – basic monochromatic furniture. The small kitchen, which they had to walk through to get into the rest of the house, was equipped with a variety of gadgets, a lot of which Bonnie didn't even recognize. She lingered a little in it, remembering her last Thanksgiving dinner. Kai had cooked it. It had been a surprisingly good meal, but she had been too on edge to enjoy it, half-trusting, half-wary about the deal she had made with him.

He got her to trust him towards the end, she realized now, bitterly. It must have made the literal and figurative gutting all the more sweeter for him.

She frowned at Matt's awed inspection of the entertainment center. "We need to hurry. Find something of Kai's for the spell."

As she had explained in the car, since the Ascendant belonged to the Parkers, and Kai personally as their leader, a locator spell would need something of his. Blood was always the best choice but a little hair would do.

Going a bit shamefaced, Matt nodded. "Should we split up?" he suggested.

"No," Bonnie said firmly.

There were two bedrooms in the flat. They chose one by random and stepped in.

Matt whistled under his breath. "Woah."

"Woah, exactly," Bonnie murmured.

The room had clearly been magically reconstructed. There was no other way that its internal dimensions or the large elaborate furniture pieces contained within could have otherwise fit into its physical space.

Bonnie felt slightly ill standing inside it.

"Convenient," Matt said. "Wonder why they couldn't all have super-sized their hotel rooms?"

"It's complicated, and some people might just not prefer to do this."

"Maybe. But it's also fun, isn't it? It's kinda easy to forget that," he said with a shrug. "We get so used to always using magic in the middle of some war or the other, we forget that sometimes magic is just _cool_."

Bonnie hummed vaguely, and left the room quickly, Matt behind her. He might find the room fascinating, but the dimensional alterations made her slightly nauseous. Also, she doubted that there would be anything of Kai's there.

The second room was clearly his. If the plain starkness didn't tell her, the trace of his magic, powerful and capricious as the man itself, seemed to reach through her skin to touch her own power. It made her blood thrum. The memory of 1903, when they channeled each other, suddenly overwhelmed her.

"You OK, Bonnie?" Matt asked, stopping halfway into the room to stare, puzzled, at where she hesitated by the doorway.

She smiled thinly, forcing herself to shrug off the momentary shock. "Sure," she said as normally as she could, and stepped into Kai Parker's room.

There were no structural alterations that she could see or sense. Which, she supposed, made sense. After almost two decades of his life being trapped in a magical dimension, he would probably find the thought of magical enhancements or alterations to his physical environment as nauseating as Bonnie had found that guest room. Rather, his room was sparsely furnished - just a bed and a low table in the center of the room – ideal, she thought immediately, for sitting cross-legged on the floor and casting. There were two pillows placed neatly beside the table, and she pictured Kai sitting across a random witch, doing magic.

That pang of longing shook through her once more. She allowed herself a moment to imagine what it felt like – growing up with magic, being surrounded by witches she could practice with, learning difficult spells, honing her craft, or merely studying along with. She had never had that. Her grandmother had died too soon. The brief time she had 'trained' Liv Parker, Bonnie had been a magic-less Anchor.

Then she snapped out of it. Someday, she'd find a witch community that wasn't working against her and/or trying to use her and she would integrate into them. She would learn from them, make allies, and maybe even friends. The Gemini were out of the question. She didn't envy _any_ of the Parkers nor their medieval twin-murdering cult.

Matt had already headed to the bathroom, so Bonnie had no choice but to rifle through the bedroom. There was no dresser, so she checked the wardrobe. A few clothes hung there, and she wished she knew a spell that could just call loose strands of hair to her. Instead, she had to carefully run her hands over the fabric of his clothes, cringing all the while. His scent lingered on them, even the clean ones and she felt her face heating up.

This was so awkward. It all felt so invasive, touching his clothes like this. Then Bonnie laughed to herself. She didn't feel strange breaking into the man's house to steal his family's magical artifact but examining his clothes made her feel guilty?

Of course there wasn't a single strand to be found, she realized when she was through. He probably did a scouring spell every-time he left his house. Kai Parker, Gemini leader and scion of a generations-old coven, was not going to leave random bits of himself lying around for some interloping witch to find. That was a rookie mistake. The kind of thing mundanes did thoughtlessly all the time. But no seasoned witch half their salt would leave such a powerful ingredient for any number of personal spells – anything from locator spells to powerful jinxes – lying around.

"Any luck?" Matt asked, popping out of the bathroom.

"Not yet. You?"

"Nothing. Everything's so clean, it looks like it was magically bleached." Which made Bonnie laugh because she had just been thinking the same thing. "I'll go check the living room. Maybe there's something there?"

More like he wanted to scrutinize the game console more closely, Bonnie thought, turning her head away so he couldn't see her roll her eyes.

"Leave the door open, Matt," she conceded. There were too many horror stories – including the ones she had lived through – that taught that splitting in enemy territory was always a bad idea.

Only Kai wasn't an enemy, still. Was he? Bonnie wavered, uncertain. She didn't know. And she was too tired of worrying about it. About him. His plans for her. If she needed to watch her back. Once she got hold of the Ascendant and destroyed it, then she'd let it go. Until then, she couldn't drop her guard.

She glanced around the room, her eyes falling on the bed. She had avoided looking at it directly all this while but now she couldn't take her eyes off it. It was hard not to imagine the man himself lying down on it.

There was one particular dream.

 _"I was spooning you earlier and I may have sleep-siphoned you."_

 _Gah!_ Bonnie yelled mentally. She had been certain that she had scoured the memories of that particular sleep encounter from her brain. Rubbing her suddenly damp palms against her jeans, and grimacing, she marched up to the bed and briskly lifted the pillow propped against the headboard. She ran her hands over it. It was cool to touch, and it smelled even more strongly of him. His scent was not unpleasant _at all_ and, her whole face was burning now.

When her finger snagged against a single short brown strand, Bonnie almost cried in relief.

"Missed one, Kai," she crowed.

"Found something, Bonnie?" Matt called.

"Yes, I'll be right there."

Matt was standing by the low corner bookshelf, looking through a book when she stepped into the parlor and she was feeling guilty for misjudging him until she realized that he was holding the book upside-down.

"Can we do the spell here?" he asked, dropping the book quickly and walking up to her eagerly. "Or do we go to your place?"

Bonnie hadn't exactly packed a magic bag but an idea suddenly popped into her head. She went to the kitchen pantry, and she found exactly what she expected. Arranged neatly in clearly marked containers on the shelves and DIY-organizers were bunches of candles, a bowl of incense, a bottle of quicksilver, even a rolled-up bunch of thin maps on scrolls, that looked like if they had been conjured en masse. In other words, she found pretty much everything she needed for the locator spell. Or any other spell she wanted to cast, as a matter of fact, she realized, staring at all the assortment of ingredients on display.

What else would one expect to find in a witch's pantry?

It hit Bonnie for the third time. That sense of forsakenness, of being disconnected from her natural habitat and left to float adrift. She had been cut off from the witch community all her life. And now here was one ready-made all but staring her in the face. She had always believed that her grandmother had good reasons for going solo and teaching Bonnie to do the same. But right now, arranging Kai's magical ingredients in his house that was filled with magic... Bonnie wondered if her grandmother might have been wrong about this, at least.

For the third time, she shrugged off her melancholy thoughts and focused on the task at hand. She took a map and spread it out on the kitchen counter, then arranged the rest of the things quietly while Matt drew up two bar stools for them. The strand of hair slid into a crucible. A trickle of Bonnie's blood and a _fyre_ spell transmuted it. Carefully, she magically extracted a single drop and let it fall on a corner of the map.

She sat on the stool and started chanting softly.

The first time Bonnie casted, the blood shivered, like if it was boiling, then it vanished.

She blinked at the map in shock.

Then she repeated the spell twice more – almost completely depleting the contents of the crucible to be sure – before she stopped.

"What's going on?" Matt asked finally. He had been silent all through out, staring at her magic with a mixture of fascination and wariness.

She spoke slowly, still struggling to grasp this new development. "It's gone."

"Gone? As in gone to a Prison World? I thought that wasn't how it worked," he asked, confused.

"No. I mean yes, you are right. That's not how the Ascendant works. It doesn't follow to the Prison World. It can't travel between worlds so it's always on this side while there's another one on that side. Only…" Bonnie frowned at the empty map. "The Ascendant on _our_ side is… gone."

Matt leaned forward, staring at the map. "I don't understand, Bon."

"This spell is telling me that it's been destroyed, completely and leaving no trace."

"So Kai destroyed it after he sent Lily back. Makes perfect sense to me. He'd be the last person to want those monsters out," Matt said reasonably.

Too reasonably, Bonnie thought, schooling her face so her irritation didn't show. There was nothing reasonable about Kai Parker when he wanted to get even with someone.

She should know. She had the scar to prove it.

And it was that memory that fueled her as she grabbed a knife, slashed her palm – ignoring Matt's sharp inhale – and sent the spray of blood into the most powerful revelation spell that she knew.

A gust of wind swept through the sealed apartment, the lights flickered twice and she felt the reverberation of the spell send a tremor through her bones.

Matt sprang to his feet. " _What was that?_ "

"The Gemini love their cloaking spells," Bonnie murmured calmly, reaching for a paper towel to clean her bloody hand. "If Kai cloaked the Ascendant, then I just uncloaked it." _And everything else cloaked within a hundred feet from here_. But there was no need telling Matt that.

"So the tracking spell will work now?"

"Unless it's really been destroyed. Let's see, shall we?"

Using the very last drop from the crucible, she casted the spell for the last time.

And for the very last time, the blood boiled and vanished.

"It's settled then," Matt said, relieved. "Kai destroyed it."

Shivering slightly, Bonnie stared hard at the map, while she mentally repeated what she had told Matt.

The Ascendant couldn't travel between worlds. So there was one on this side to transport the bearer into the Prison World and another in the Prison World to transport the bearer out.

"The heretics don't need this Ascendant to escape. They need one on their side. They _have_ one on their side. It would be on the ground, right where Kai and I left."

"But what happens to the Ascendant on that side if the one on this side is destroyed?" Matt asked.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Can you search for it?"

"Matt, I can't track an object from another dimension."

"Maybe not with this spell but some other spell, right?"

"Matt…"

"I mean." He snorted softly. "Bonnie, this is _magic_ we're talking about."

She opened her mouth to contradict him with a laugh – then stopped. That was the great thing about Matt, Bonnie thought. He might not know the answers but he sure knew the right questions to ask.

"You're right, I guess," she said slowly, thinking. "With the right tools, practically any kind of spell is _theoretically_ possible. The problem would be the amount of mojo it would take." _Expression._ "Way more than I have, I'm afraid." She made a face.

He saw it. "What is it?"

Bonnie shrugged. "This talk of mojo – not having enough. It reminds me of…" She trailed off. When he kept staring at her with puzzled earnestness, she gave him a small, sad smile. "The times I didn't have magic. How powerless I felt."

His face lightened as something like realization seemed to dawn on it. "Maybe that's what's causing your nightmares, Bonnie? Remember how it was to feel powerless."

She smarted at that. "No, Matt, I don't think so."

"Bonnie…"

His face was filling with deep concern and she shied away from it, hunching her shoulders slightly as she stared back at the map. But she wasn't seeing it; her gaze had turned inwards, reflecting on his words even though she had denied them. Was Matt right? Had all this really been for nothing? Her fears? Her bad dreams? Was all this just a way of her wanting to reclaim control?

She supposed that she would probably be feeling something like embarrassment right now, but she was still too tense.

Lily Salvatore was back in the prison world. The Ascendant was destroyed. Kai Parker… He had told her they were even. And before that – and as always when she remembered this, Bonnie felt her insides churn with confusion – _he had saved her life_.

Maybe, just maybe, Kai had really let 1903 go?

Could it really all be over?

What were Bonnie's dreams, then? Vestiges of post-traumatic stress, like Jo Parker kept insisting?

Perhaps she should call the good doctor for the shrink's number after all.

"Bonnie," Matt said very gently, and she felt his warm hand on her arm. "The Ascendant on this side is gone. No one's going to get them out. And they can't get out themselves, remember? They need to know the spell and to have Bennett blood." He squeezed her arm. "It's over, Bonnie. You don't have to be afraid anymore."

The spell.

Bonnie sat up so suddenly, she felt her spine crack.

She and Kai had escaped under the Northern Lights, a circle of heretics around them. Any one of them could have heard the spell. Or later, casted a _Memoria_ to recreate that moment.

As for Bennett blood…

There was a whole vat of it in its ancient, most powerful form in a tomb in Nova Scotia.

"Bonnie?"

Bonnie didn't hear Matt. She was too busy forcing herself to remain calm, to deliberately think this through before panicking.

Surely, if the heretics had been aware of Qetsiya's blood, wouldn't they have escaped the Prison World long ago? Unless they had only recently found out… from Kai.

Information he gave under duress?

Or information he had given up willingly with the hope that they would break free and take him along?

Or…

Bonnie remembered the nightmarish details of her second trip to the 1903 prison world. By the end of it, she had been exhausted. Her magic couldn't sustain Kai's revival spell. Her own healing spell had failed and her wound had re-opened. Only the power of Expression, the magic she got from channeling Kai, and her sheer force of will had kept her alive long enough to do the Ascending spell.

She sat warm and safe in Kai's kitchen, but she felt herself very far away. She could almost taste the snow falling against her lips, the sound of Kai's voice chanting, the warmth of his fingers where it tangled with hers around the Ascendant, the coldness of her blood-soaked shirt. The smell of iron from her blood as it dripped into the snow…

Her blood-soaked shirt… her blood… _dripping into the snow_ …

Bonnie stood up from her stool abruptly, and whirled at Matt, horror rising in her.

"Bonnie, what is it?" he asked, startled.

"I left blood behind," she whispered. "They heard me say the spell.

"Matt, they're already out."

* * *

 _June 2014_

During the drive from the airport, Damon eventually managed to touch base with Stefan. Assuming she hadn't got any of Bonnie's messages yet, Stefan would bring Caroline up to speed. Matt sent them a text that he had got through to Tyler. They all agreed to convene at the Salvatore's Boarding house the next morning to discuss strategy. Damon still hadn't figured out exactly what his Plan B would entail but, in his usual Damon way, he was pretty optimistic.

He dropped Bonnie off at the off-campus apartment that she and Caroline had moved into after sophomore year. During the previous summer, the university had relocated several students out of their campus dorms to temporary housing, in order to do the construction upgrades requested by the new owners. The three girls were supposed to have moved back to their old and improved dorm for the Fall semester; but when Bonnie and Caroline returned from Europe without Elena, it just hadn't felt right to them. So they moved to this place, which was just near enough to campus that they still felt like a part of the community, but far away that they could practice what Caroline liked to call their 'alternative lifestyle' without raising too many eyebrows. For Caroline, that involved nocturnal hunting and the occasional trip to the bleeders. For Bonnie that involved practicing magic that could cause extremely localized climate changes.

Bonnie hadn't spoken directly to Caroline since she left Portland but there was a welcome home note on the fridge and an actual apple pie in the oven.

Bonnie grinned happily because it was _good_ to be back in their cozy little place, tastefully furnished with Caroline's eye for colors and patterns and Bonnie's magic creating some exciting finishing touches. Dropping her stuff at the foot of her bed, she threw herself with her arms spread out on it, kicked off her shoes and exhaled.

It had been a nightmare finding a place that they both agreed on but when they found this place, they had fallen in love with it at once. To Caroline, it meant growth, and independence. It meant those for Bonnie too. But even more, it meant escape. She had taken everything worth taking from her father's house and moved it here, then put up the house for sale. She had not quite sworn to herself that she would never step foot in Mystic Falls again – that was extreme, especially with the ties she still kept with Matt, and Tyler, and so many others she grew up with and loved. But she had vowed not to have a reason to stay too long, and certainly not to get tangled up in Salvatore and supernatural feuds.

But this was different.

 _So you come rushing back to save the box of tools that you call friends?_

Kai's mocking words echoed in her head and she felt the same flash of anger rise in her again. He had no idea what he was talking about and she hated that his words – the entirety of the man himself – affected her so badly. In so many aggravating ways.

Sighing, she rolled out of bed, stepped into the bathroom and, despite the cool Virginia evening, had a cold shower. She tried – and failed – not to let certain memories plague her but they were like the contents of a Pandora's box. After a year of keeping that night shut tightly in the box of her mind, the trip to Portland had slid the key into the lock and turned it; Caroline's insidious phone call had creaked the lid open; and the last encounter with Kai Parker in the Saltzmans' kitchen had blown the lid off completely.

Or, Bonnie thought crossly, lifting her right wrist to the spray and glaring at the band, maybe this was the culprit. Maybe he really had put a hex on her. But even as she thought it, she knew she didn't believe it. Still, first thing that morning – well, first thing after the meeting at the Boarding house – she was going to find what it meant and a spell to take it off.

And now, her head was filled with the memory of that _smirk_ when he said that he might have hexed her.

After _several_ cold showers, she finally felt sane enough to slip into her sensible pajamas. She walked with stocking feet to the kitchen and made a cup of hot chocolate. She drank most of it as she slowly worked through most of the apple pie, only stopping when her eyes started drooping. Then she packed up the leftovers and went into her pantry to find the ingredients she needed to make a very special potion.

She had got the recipe from the two witches she had made friends with in Europe. It was an antidote to bad dreams… and unwanted memories.

She measured carefully, poured the mix of herbs and rock into her tiny mortar and ground them into powder.

 _His chest pressed against her back, hands on her waist, rings digging into her skin, and something harder digging into her ass. He buried his face in her hair and hummed a little against her scalp while her hands shook slightly over the coffee machine and she steeled herself to say it…_

Her hands were steady as she poured the powder into her chocolate. She started lifting the cup to her lips…

…and tipped its contents into the sink.

She made another cup of chocolate, and spiked it with a little vodka. Enough for a long night's sleep only, not a bad hangover the next morning… certainly not enough to suppress the memories that she had been running from for the better part of a year.

Not anymore, though. It was time to wake up. Figuratively, that was.

She washed up and wiped her hands, and then she had to wipe her face which had suddenly, stupidly become wet and she padded off to bed.

* * *

 _June 2013_

Bonnie's sense of panic was so immense, so immediate that Matt's unworried face startled her.

"Bonnie, that's a pretty big conclusion."

She gaped. "Did you hear anything I said? They have my blood and they know the spell. The Ascendant fell on the snow when Kai and I left there. They had everything they needed. They may've been out for days!"

"Then why didn't they meet up with Lily Salvatore?" he asked reasonably. "Why leave her wandering around Mystic Falls, desperately missing them? All they had to do was mention the name 'Salvatore' to anyone in town and they'd have found her within a day."

The thought gave her pause. "I don't know."

"Lily's about the only thing that would bring them to Mystic Falls, anyway. If – and, mind you, I think it's a pretty big if – these heretics got out, they'd be more likely to go West to Oregon where the Gemini coven is…"

His voice trailed off as Bonnie's panic finally caught up with him. They stared at each other in dismay.

"The Gemini coven isn't in Oregon," she said unnecessarily, her voice rising. "They are here in Mystic Falls. To attend Jo's wedding. They've been gathering here for days. And," her mind was racing now, making the connections faster than she cared to, "more importantly, _Kai_ is here. They don't need to go after the entire coven. They just need to kill him and the rest of the coven dies. And the prison worlds collapse, yes but perhaps the heretics think destroying the Gemini is worth sacrificing Lily. Oh my god!" She gasped. "We need to call him, Matt. We need to warn him. All of them!"

She started reaching for her phone, and then she let out a soft scream when she realized it was pointless. She didn't have his number. Why would she?

But Matt had pulled out his phone and was already dialing. "I got his number when I was running around, getting their coven people settled in," he said in answer to the unspoken question.

Bonnie waited, standing on her toes and straining her ears. Kai's phone was ringing, but he wasn't picking. It rang and rang then it went into an automated voicemail.

"Let's call everyone else," Matt said, and his calm voice anchored Bonnie a little. "I'll call Alaric, Tyler, Stefan. You call Elena, Caroline, and Damon."

"We can call and walk at the same time, too," she declared as she strode towards the door.

Matt rushed ahead, passing her. He was reaching out to touch the knob, when Bonnie felt it – a spike in the air that said Danger.

Her hand stretched out in a silent _Motus_ , and she pulled Matt back to her side a split second before the door flung inwards violently.

Standing in the doorway were three people – a man that looked partly Native Indian and an olive-skinned brunette standing side by side; towering behind both was a tall, auburn-haired man. They were dressed in long, hooded red robes; their faces were veined and hungry; and their auras pulsed with a strange, repulsive but – to Bonnie – horrifyingly familiar rhythm.

Heretics.

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _Portland, Oregon._

The ringing of her cell jolted Jo Saltzman out of sleep.

Because she had spent over two decades responding to life-and-death late night phone calls, she didn't grab the offending object and fling it across the room – like any other sane nursing mother of twins who was catching up on some much needed sleep would have done. Instead, she calmly swore like a sailor, enough to stir the man sleeping beside her, and then checked her phone to see the suicidal fool that would dare disturb her rest.

The name seemed to jump at her, and she sat up in bed at once. "Dad? What's going on?"

She and Joshua Parker may have reconciled over the little matter of attempted filicide but they were not exactly on late-night social calls terms so clearly, something was wrong.

"Where is your brother?"

Her heart jumped. "I'm guessing you mean Kai?"

Joshua sighed heavily. Wherever his children had got their snark from, it wasn't from him. "I need to speak to him urgently."

"Have you checked his place? Because if he's not in Portland, then I have no idea where he is."

"Jo, this is important."

"Honestly, Dad, I saw him this morning and he didn't say anything to make me think he was planning on leaving town soon."

"Do you think he's gone to Virginia? For the heretics?" Joshua cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I believe Ms. Bennett and the vampire returned there today."

Jo raised an eyebrow. So her father had picked up on _that_.

"Jo, what's going on?" Alaric mumbled from beside her.

She shhhd him. "Nothing important. Go back to bed. You need your rest." He was on night-duty again.

Murmuring sleepily, he turned around and hopefully, nodded back off.

"Jo, are you still there?"

"Coming, Dad," Jo muttered, as she dragged herself out of bed. She went to the corner of the room, far enough that she could talk a little louder without waking her husband.

"Last we spoke, Kai mentioned the renegade shapeshifters. Maybe he's gone to NOLA to consult with the Southern Court? Then there's the vampire situation in Brooklyn…"

Even to her own ears, her words sounded unconvincing.

"Our Envoys and the Hunters have got the Brooklyn situation in check. And while I would very much like to think that Kai is in NOLA for entirely different reasons – all this talk of the Augustine Society resurrecting, and the Nine Covens allying with them, should be of grave concern to us all – I sincerely doubt that. You're covering for him, Josette, just like you did when you were both younger. I would have thought you'd have learnt your lesson about that by now."

A short, uncomfortable silence followed that.

Then Joshua sighed again.

"Whatever means you have to reach your brother, do so quickly. I won't stand him going after his personal vendetta and risking the coven."

Jo tensed. Joshua Parker was head Councilman and informal peacekeeper between the council, the elders, and their Praetor. That peacekeeping role was vital and his threats carried weight.

"Kai won't do anything rash. If he's in Virginia – and _I don't know if he is, OK? –_ but if he is, he has a plan."

"It'd still be an unnecessary risk. Especially now that I strongly believe that our real enemy is not in Virginia, but here in Oregon."

Jo was fully awake now, her grip on the phone tightening. "Dad, what do you mean by that?"

"Victor Briggs. Gabriel formerly O'Sullivan. Judith Stewart. Do those names not mean anything to you, Jo?"

"No, they do not."

"Are you sure, Jo? Because these three..."

"You should speak to the Praetor," she said and her voice had gone stern, formal. "In a situation of this nature, you are required to provide all information…"

"Don't quote rules to me, Jo." He snapped. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to?"

"Have _you_?"

He exhaled noisily, clearly irritated. "I have my reasons to wait until my theories are complete. I do not want to cause a panic. You obviously know more than you want to admit so I advise you to do the same."

Jo was silent.

"Whatever you choose to tell your brother, I still need to talk to the Praetor and soon. Let him know this the moment you get off the phone with me."

"I'll do my best to reach him, Dad but I can't guarantee anything."

"You doing your best, Jo," his voice had become suddenly fond, "is all the guarantee I need."

They said their goodbyes and Jo put her phone down. For the first time, she noticed the time. It was three am. It was already early morning in Virginia. Montana was earlier still.

Donning her dressing gown, and slipping her phone into her pocket, she quietly left the bedroom.

The house was quiet. The twins were still sleeping deeply. Even Liv's usual snores were silent as Jo passed by her door. The study was on the first floor and she carefully made her way down the stairs in the dark.

She turned on the desk-light, then went to a bookshelf and searched through the thick tomes of medical reference books until she pulled out a specific volume. She opened it carefully, and revealed – not pages – but a hollowed-out center. It was a trick book. And hidden in it was a slim and faded spiral notebook. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. A list of names.

Seven names precisely. And the first three names were already crossed out.

 _M. Linus_

 _V. Briggs._

 _G. O'Sullivan._

Holding the book open with one hand, she walked to her desk and got a pen. With a careful hand, she crossed out the fourth name on the list.

 _J. Stewart._

Jo's finger rested against the first name beneath these, pressing hard enough to feel the worn paper yield. Indecision raged inside her as she felt a swirl of emotions staring at the list.

She made up her mind.

The burner phone was hidden in another trick book. She waited impatiently for it to power up, then she scrolled down the contacts until she found _P. Lang,_ and started typing her message.

* * *

 _June 2013_

The three heretics were as shocked to find Bonnie and Matt at the other side of the door as Bonnie and Matt had been to see them. It was a momentary advantage that Bonnie had the presence of mind to seize.

" _Immobiliza_!" She cried, one hand throwing a hex, while the other stretched up and drew a protective shield over her and Matt.

Her spell hit the three squarely and they froze in place.

Matt was already loading his crossbow, and he shot two arrows in quick succession right into the hearts of the two in front. The third arrow was aimed for the head of the tall redhead but it never hit its target.

Because the man had broken through the spell and charged, leaping over the heads of his companions with the super-speed and agility of a well-fed vampire.

Bonnie threw out another freezing spell but another figure leaped in front of her, catching the spell, _absorbing_ the spell and then charging at _Bonnie_.

Her weight slammed Bonnie right into the ground and Bonnie pushed out an _Immolata_ with her mind. The heretic reeled back, holding her head as she squirmed on her haunches and Bonnie tried to scramble out from under her, yelling out _Immolatas_ after _Immolatas_ with rapid succession.

Across the room there was a small explosion, and a shout and she guessed that Matt must have thrown one of the vervain bombs.

 _Thank goodness he's holding his own,_ Bonnie thought with relief _. Now all I have to do is incendia this creature_ …

The _Incendia_ spell hovered in the air, suspended an inch from the heretic's eyes, which were glowing gold. She was smiling at Bonnie.

And that was when Bonnie realized, with a thrill of dismay, that the heretic had not been squirming with pain but shaking with laughter.

"Your magic is delectable," she said, her eyes shimmering with familiar gold whorls as Bonnie literally watched her magic being absorbed by the creature.

Bonnie stopped casting, frozen with shock as she realized, remembered – _and all that was holy, how could she have been so stupid to forget?_ – that everything she just did had only served to make this creature stronger. How, she thought, terror-mounting, do you fight something that turns your own power against you?

"Pray do not cease on our account," said another voice above Bonnie and she looked up to see the dark-haired man standing over his companion. "My friends and I were just starting to get entertained."

The redhead appeared beside them. All three heretics were accounted for. Matt must have missed his shots.

"Where's Matt?" Bonnie cried.

The three heretics exchanged glances, then turned to give her identical, malicious smiles. Two of those smiles, she noticed with horror, bared sharp teeth stained with red. The redhead lifted his hand and curled his fingers into a fist.

Immediately, Bonnie felt her throat close, as if an invisible hand had wrapped around it and was choking her. She couldn't breathe and her vision was rapidly dimming.

She tried to push back with magic, but the more she pushed, the tighter the grip. She didn't need to see the three pairs of eyes glimmering with gold to know that once more, her magic was being used against her but she couldn't help it. She couldn't _not_ struggle.

Everything was dim now. She slumped to her side, still gasping.

Where was Matt?

A shadow was looming over her, and then suddenly, strong arms pulled her into a sitting position and she felt cold breath at her throat.

 _No!_

Panic and disgust shattered through her and she tried to struggle – with magic, with physical strength, but she couldn't. She was weak, too weak.

Matt. Was he all right?

The edge of sharp teeth grazed her skin. She didn't even have energy to scream, just brace herself for the agony of blood and magic being stolen from her.

Then she felt a lightening of pressure as if someone had hurled her attacker back.

She fell back to the floor, her head hitting hard. Darkness came rushing, much as she struggled against it. But not before she heard their last words.

"Not this one. Remember our sire."

"A taste. Bennett magic. By god, her Expression…"

"Be steadfast then. Frederick, contain your sister."

"And the other?"

"He's already dead."

 _Matt!_

Bonnie's own mental scream was the last thing she heard before she went under.

* * *

 _June 2014_

When Bonnie woke up, it took her a few minutes to remember that she was no longer in Portland, no longer in Jo's and Alaric's white-picketed house, no longer in the same vicinity as Kai Parker.

She had no idea how long she had slept but if the light pouring through her thin curtains were any indication, it had been an incredibly long time. The vodka had done its job and she didn't even feel the slightest bit woozy. For a long moment, she stared blankly at the ceiling.

She was home. She said it aloud and then again, in a happier voice. She was glad to be back.

She had reached out for help but to no avail. In a twisted way, she should be thankful for that. If the Gemini had agreed to help, and swooped in to save the day, she'd carry the burden of being the one to cast the deciding vote that day in the War Room when they had argued about petitioning to Portland for help. She hadn't just been the one to break the tie – she had also been the one whose 'objectivity' had convinced everyone who opposed to agree. Agree that they didn't need the Gemini coven.

She could admit to herself now that – despite her efforts to ignore it – the insidious thought had been creeping up on her. The thought that she had steered her friends, her comrades-in-arms to speak, wrong not because of an honest mistake but purely because of her –

\- _past, feud, unresolved feelings for Kai Parker -_

own comfort. At least this way, she didn't have on her conscience the deaths of all the people that had been killed between then and now. The Gemini didn't help now, and they won't have helped then.

So yes, she was thankful that this was not one more burden for her to carry.

And if once more the stakes of a looming supernatural war depended solely on her? She was fine with that. Since Sheila Bennett's passing, there was only one person Bonnie Bennett had ever been able to depend upon and that was Bonnie Bennett. She'd deal with this problem like she'd dealt with countless others in the past. Sooner or later, she was going to fix this, and then the debt she owed this town would be paid once and for all.

She got up with a little hop and stretched like a cat. Then she padded to the bathroom, freshened up, and returned to her room to attack the luggage that she hadn't bothered unpacking the day before.

It didn't take too long and when she was done, she picked up the Gemini Grimoires and took them to the reading table by the window. She cracked her knuckles, then cracked open one of the volumes.

Once again, she felt overwhelmed with the wealth of knowledge contained within. The Gemini might have been reticent about recording any information about Heretics, Siphoners and Prison Worlds, but they had detailed out information about practically every other supernatural phenomena. Bonnie could spend months poring through any one of these books and not nearly be done.

Today however, she looked for information about vampire weaknesses. She remembered what _he_ had told her about how vervain worked against the heretics – by dampening their vampiric aura and their primary source of magic – and she wondered if there was anything else that could have that effect. An elemental by its own nature, not constructed and spelled like one of the Gilbert devices. She already knew that holy water, garlic and crosses were useless. But she wondered if there weren't any real-life equivalents to these elements of popular fiction.

An hour later, and she was almost drowning in information. The tome she was reading was titled _Medeis Bestia_ –a study of supernatural creatures. Apparently the supernatural demography was a lot more varied than Bonnie had realized. Vampires, werewolves, and recently dragons were the extent of her own knowledge. But now she skimmed through an index that included immortal faeries, banshees, succubae, and so much more. The Gemini seemed to regard these creatures with a spectrum that spanned from indifferent suspicion to outright hatred.

And vampires, Bonnie realized with disquiet, were very high on the 'outright hatred' side of that spectrum.

As much as she realized that her own life became considerably more difficult when vampires entered into it, Bonnie still held onto her objectivity about them – still believed that she was supposed to judge vampires based on their actions, not their natures – just like every other sentient creature in existence.

The Gemini did not.

If this tome was any reflection of their beliefs, vampires were high on the list of _Nefandus Bestia_ ** _[1]_** – supernaturals that were inherently evil. There were several citations to other journals all detailing stories that ended badly – alliances betrayed, witches compromised and enslaved, covens destroyed – when witches had associated with vampires. The tome itself contained detailed information on how witches could defend themselves from, attack and kill vampires. Studies were done on a lot of vampire phenomena – the sire bond was compared to vampire compulsion – and apparently, the joke she had shared with Elena once upon a time about the many uses of the Cure to Vampirism was not a joke at all. According to this Grimoire, the Cure was an ingredient in some of the most powerful and elaborately dangerous spells that could be thought of – creating an infinite source of magic, the basis of a _Discerno Coniugo_ – some form of dangerous separation spell, even a key ingredient in a spell that could cause a magical Armageddon, whatever that meant… But its most important use would always be to disable, and then destroy a vampire.

It was rather fascinating, Bonnie thought, focusing on that almost to distract herself from the rest. But she reasoned that most of the other uses _had_ to be theoretical. There was only one known cure for vampirism in the entire world and it had been a myth until a few years ago. But then again, she realized almost at once, the Gemini could build Prison Worlds that duplicated the real one, right down to magical objects. Perhaps some of these spells had actually been tested?

The possibilities were mind-blowing.

Liv would probably know, Bonnie thought. Not for the first time, Bonnie imagined what it would have been like, being brought up with a proper _Disciplina_ , studying these Grimoires leisurely, over the course of years and under the guidance of seasoned witches, not self-tutoring like she had been forced to do, looking for quick fixes to some immediate emergency.

Of course, if she had been given a proper Gemini _Disciplina_ , Bonnie might never have thought twice about leaving Stefan Salvatore locked up in tomb.

And Grandma Sheila would still be alive today.

The nebulous voices that started haunting her in 1994 used to fill her head with thoughts like that.

 _And thoughts like that_ , Bonnie told herself firmly, _will buy me a one-way, all-expenses-paid ticket on the Cuckoo Express Train to Insanity City._

A witch could do a lot of things. But even she couldn't change the past.

She swallowed hard, then took a deep shuddering breath, and forced herself to think of something else. And what came to mind was Liv Parker. Bonnie hadn't got any messages from the witch yet, but it was only a matter of time before Liv noticed that Bonnie had 'borrowed' her grimoires for a bit longer than they had agreed upon. With a sigh, Bonnie realized she'd better give the other witch a call. Make sure she wasn't freaking out over the spell-books.

She got up from her chair and went to sit on her bed. Her phone was under her pillow.

She had turned off the ringer last night and now she gaped at the list of missed calls and messages from Caroline, Matt and Damon. Bonnie groaned as she realized that she had forgotten all about the morning pow-wow. Damon was going to kill her.

She was in the middle of a quick text in apology to them when a cold aura suddenly filled her room.

"Good morning, Miss Bennett."

Bonnie jumped to her feet.

Tall, ginger-haired, cherub-faced, dressed in denim from top to toe but still standing with the posture of someone who had lived in an era of charm schools.

Their small gang of misfits had had two skirmishes with the heretics and both times, Bonnie had only caught glimpses of the vamp-faced duo, sensing their empty lightning-fast essences better through magic than with her own eyes. It had been enough to place the man from the wedding – it was hard to forget a face that was attached to a head you had literally cut off. But Bonnie was certain that until now, she had never had a good look at the woman.

Yet there was something oddly, strikingly familiar about the face that now regarded her with clear malice.

"We've never been properly introduced. My name is Georgiana Parker and you are in possession of something that I am in desperate want of."

Instinctively, stupidly, Bonnie threw a _motus_ which the heretic just absorbed with a gleeful laugh and then in blur of red she was on Bonnie, hands clamped around Bonnie's wrists, and fangs buried in Bonnie's neck.

* * *

[1] Abominable Creatures

 **A/N** : Thanks a lot to my dear beta, keenan24, and to all the reviewers who left reviews, I really appreciated them. I have mid-terms so I'll be offline for a bit. Cheers everyone!


	10. 10

**CHAPTER TEN**

* * *

 _April 2013_

The heretics, the witch-vampire creatures that Jo described so graphically, were awake.

Bonnie knew this the moment she stumbled over the thin, pale creature huddled in a heap on the snow, a threadbare blanket thrown over his body. He was so still, so silent, his aura so dimmed. The tracking spell she had conjured with his twin's blood had led her to him. Otherwise Bonnie would have been sure he was dead.

"Kai… Kai… _Kai_!"

She struggled to turn him around to work the reviving spell. She barely recognized him. Under crudely hewn scruff, his face was worn and tired and the bulk he had picked up after the 1994 prison world had whittled away.

Then there were the bites. On his neck. His wrists between sleeves and gloves. Even his _temple_ … Who knew where else?

So many bites.

She had found Kai Parker exactly as she had expected, exactly as she had hoped.

Bonnie had wanted to kill this man, to feel the satisfaction of twisting that knife through his chest and watching the life drain out of his eyes. Only then did she believe that she would ever know peace. The peace she had lost trapped in his prison, slowly losing her mind, as she succumbed to the ghosts and the voices that plagued her.

When he had escaped, she felt cheated.

But later when she had been chanting under the Northern Lights, with the other three beside her, she had looked up at the sound of his cry, seen the devastation in his face, and she had been glad that he didn't die.

It had been _so much_ sweeter to abandon Kai Parker to suffer the same isolation he had condemned her to. To trap him in an empty world, with nothing but his own guilt and demons for company.

Before she vanished from 1903, Bonnie had watched Kai's face break with utter desolation and she had felt happier than she had ever felt in … many, many years.

It hadn't lasted.

That same night, Bonnie was told about Lily Salvatore's travelling companions, and she once again felt that her revenge had been thwarted. All she could think was that a sociopathic witch and a band of evil vampires would go together like butter and jam. Fear creeped into Bonnie's heart at the thought of Kai escaping. Because he would come after her, she had no doubt about that. And he would be ruthless.

So she had to figure out how to keep him there forever. Already, Lily Salvatore was breathing down Bonnie's neck, demanding for the release of her family. Bonnie stalled as much as possible but she knew it was only a matter of time before the woman's polite insistence turned violent.

Destroying the Ascendant to permanently seal passageway to the Prison World was easy to assume - as easy and as stupid as assuming that key ingredient to powering the Ascendant was Bennett _magic_ , not Bennett _blood_. For all Bonnie knew, the Ascendant was the seal to the Prison World and destroying it was the equivalent of detonating its door, letting the inmates free. To do this properly, she would need to consult with the architects of the Prison. She would need to talk to a Gemini witch.

Liv Parker and the rest of her coven had gone into hiding when Luke died, which left Josette Laughlin, formerly Parker, as Bonnie's only option. Bonnie paid a visit to Dr. Laughlin, informed her that her estranged brother had changed address, and asked her how to make that permanent.

That was how Bonnie learnt four things: first, that Josette had no idea that had brother had been trapped in a Prison World all this while; second, that the life of the leader of the Gemini Coven was tied to the lives of all the witches and wizards of the coven, from the oldest member to the youngest – even the unborn baby in Jo's womb; third, a new word - _heretics_.

Lastly, that she, Bonnie, rather than finding a way to lock Kai in the 1903 Prison World, would have to find a way to bring him back.

Bonnie hadn't wanted to believe it, had refused to take the word of her nemesis's twin sister at face value. She had done her own homework, digging into Sheila's old grimoires. Had even ended up sharing her plans with Damon, against her own judgment, if only to get access to the spell-books in the Salvatore library. After hours of research, she had finally found the obscure reference in one of Jonas Martin's grimoires that confirmed the truth of Jo's words.

Bonnie's revenge versus the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

It wasn't a choice.

He had barely been gone long enough for her to revel in her victory over him. The ghosts had not stopped plaguing her. The voices in her head had not stopped talking.

But just like that, she was robbed of any chance of peace.

At least, she took comfort from the thought of Kai suffering under the hands of merciless heretics. If Jo's story was true, then vampires with their own magic would not be so easy for the sociopath to make friends or bargain with. Bonnie hoped that he had somehow woken them up. A troop of hungry, desiccated vampires. And Kai the only living thing in sight.

She hoped that they had drained him to within an inch of his life.

Barely five minutes after she landed in that cold world, she found Kai Parker: a crumpled figure on the snow, suffering from acute anemia, exposure and multiple bite wounds. His magical essence was so depleted that it barely registered when she prodded it.

Drained within an inch of life.

Bonnie had found Kai exactly as she imagined. Exactly as she had hoped. This was supposed to make her happy. This was supposed to help her find peace.

The reality made her sick.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Everything about the attack was brutal. The teeth tearing through her neck, the growling as her blood gushed into the heretic's mouth, the pull on her magic that drew it to her skin, pulsing hard in her veins…

… and staying there.

She could feel her heart slowing, her vision fading from blood loss but her magic still stayed within her.

With one fading gasp of energy, Bonnie drew on everything she had and threw a _motus_.

This time it hit. Too engrossed in her feeding, the heretic was caught off-guard and she went flying across the room. Bonnie held her neck with one hand, gasping and fighting against the coming blackness, and stretched out another hand to throw _incendia_ after _incendia_ at the creature.

She was already on her feet and flying towards Bonnie and each time it hit her, she paused, reeling as if to absorb the spell. It slowed her down, but it didn't hurt her, and it was probably already making her stronger.

In seconds, she had reached Bonnie and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her up and pinning her high on the wall. She had stopped siphoning and this close, Bonnie could see that her eyes were deep blue, there were jewelry shaped like little green birds in the whorls of her ears, and her face was taut with utter bewilderment.

"By what means is your magic restrained?" she rasped.

Bonnie stared down at her, her head hurting, so weak that she couldn't even feel the pain from the heretic's grip. Could barely muster up a watery smile. "Won't you like to know?" she whispered.

With a snarl, the heretic pulled her forward and smashed her back into the wall. Bonnie's vision exploded with red stars.

"I demand your Expression. Yield it to me or face your demise."

Bonnie's head was almost lolling on her neck now, and the heretic's face was dimming into a pale blur surrounded by a red cloud.

"Y- you won't find if I'm d-dead," she managed.

"You have no leverage to make demands of me."

"Not a demand. F-fact."

Its grip on her tightened so hard that Bonnie was certain that it really was going to make good on its threat and tear her apart.

Instead, it flung her to the bed, and the next thing Bonnie felt was magic being forced into her body.

A healing spell. Done by someone with obviously little experience performing one. Without the finesse of a practiced caster, it burnt through her body, hurting even worse than the biting had done. Bonnie moaned as her neck knitted closed and blood was forced out of her bones, leaving her weak and shaky.

"Enough." Bonnie gasped.

It was nothing like being healed by vampire blood. Her body ached all over, her heart racing, her lungs working overtime to compensate for the rapid healing that had taken as much toll on her as the attack.

The heretic loomed over her, her oddly familiar face dark with determination. "You are sufficiently revived. Yield the Expression at once."

"So that you can kill me when I'm done?" Bonnie muttered. "I think I'll pass."

Fingers curled into her hair, yanking her head forward and making her yelp. "If it is required, I _will_ dismember you and burrow through your remains until I possess it. I have knowledge of the means to prolong your life until you are begging for the mercy of its end."

"If you torture me, you'll piss me off and I won't help you," Bonnie gasped.

The heretic's grip in her hair loosened a bit. "You are the insolent witch that gypped the one dearest to me. It will immensely gratify me to destroy _you_."

Bonnie smiled slowly, her eyes catching the tiny blur of movement in the far corner of the room. "The feeling is mutual."

Then her fist smashed into the heretic's face. Or tried to. The woman let go off Bonnie's hair to catch her hand, and that split-second of distraction was enough for the heretic to be caught off-guard when a stream of wooden bullets went pumping through her body.

She screamed, the force of the shots flinging her into the wall. Bonnie yanked her hand away, and rolled off the bed, landing painfully on the floor. She tried to crawl out of the way, but before she could shift further than an inch, a blur of blonde hair and flowers was at her side, swooping her up into strong arms.

Caroline.

"I am not done with you!" Georgiana's voice roared, shooting out a de-mobilizing spell on both of them. But Bonnie had anticipated it, and threw it right back at her. It wasn't enough to stop her but it sent her reeling.

And made her infuriated. She snarled, fangs cutting through her lips. "I care nothing for what was promised, _you will suffer for that._ " Her hands rose up and pain exploded in Bonnie's head. She felt Caroline stagger, as well. Both girls fell to the floor.

Then Tyler came flying across the room with a stake in his grip and halted in the middle of it – his hands on his head, shouting in pain as Bonnie felt her own pain leave her, the heretic switching her focus away from them.

Two shots were fired and now, Matt was stepping forward, the gun in a two-handed grip as he shouted Bonnie's name. Georgiana merely rose a lazy hand, sent them flying back – he dodged the first, and the second one hit his stomach, the impact throwing him against the wall.

"You missed, young man."

"No, he didn't," Damon quipped from behind her.

She turned in time to receive the full blast of the blowtorch in his hands. She lit up like a firecracker, flaming from her shoes to the top of her fiery head. Then Stefan and Tyler were running forward, batons swinging, Bonnie was stretching out her hands and with magic and brute force, they shoved her at the window. It shattered under her weight, and she flew through, screaming all the way down until her voice went abruptly silent.

* * *

 _April 2013_

About fifteen minutes after she found Kai Parker's body in the snow, Bonnie finally felt she had moved them to a place safe enough to stop. Even with magic, dragging along the dead weight of a six feet plus man through the snow was no joke. Keeping them camouflaged had also taken its toll. But she didn't know what to expect when she revived him and if he was going to attack her on instinct, she needed them to be in a place where they were less likely to both get caught; and she could, hopefully, talk him down from his rage.

She stretched out her senses now, enveloping everywhere within a mile. If anything stepped into that radius, she would know.

She stared down at the unconscious man in the snow, scowling. It would be so much easier if she could do this without having to wake him up. Heaving a huge sigh, she knelt down beside him, and placed her hands over his back.

He was still wearing the same clothes he had arrived in. She made out the rips in his jeans and coat where her knife had gone through.

Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes and chanted softly. The revival spell she used was the strongest one she knew, and she augmented it with Expression to be sure. It should send Kai to his feet with enough energy to burn through for hours. Enough for both of them to get to the designated spot, do the Ascension spell and kiss this prison world goodbye.

She felt the magic working, and stopped, taking her hands back. She placed her left hand flat on the snow, but kept a hex hovering at the tips of her gloved fingers; her right hand brushed against the hilt of the knife under her jacket. Any moment now, Kai was going to jump up like a jack in the box, take one look at her, and attack. She'd have to immobilize him, then explain her presence and give him the choice to either come along without violence or …

Well, she would think of something.

She heard him stir, and grew even tenser. But he just slowly rolled to his back, his breathing changing as he shivered. His lids finally opened, and a pair of grey eyes stared at her.

For a few moments, they just looked at each other. Kai's face remained blank, and his shattered aura barely stirred.

"Kai…" Bonnie asked finally, tentatively, half-worried, half-wary as she touched his chest gently. Worried because she feared he had been so badly sapped of blood and magic that even her spell, which was the magical equivalent of an adrenaline shot, hadn't been enough.

Wary because every single time that Bonnie Bennett and Kai Parker got physically close to each other, it always ended with one of them getting stabbed.

It was like a demented game of tag. And – what were the odds? – Bonnie was It.

After a few more moments of staring blankly at her, his face – thin, under six-weeks of ill-kept facial hair – stretched into a smile she could only describe as idiotic.

"You're wearing far too many clothes, Bon."

Her jaw dropped.

But Kai helpfully elaborated, his voice hoarse but still managing to retain its annoyingly familiar singsong lilt. "I didn't just hit rock bottom. I kept going. I'm at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean. No, further than that. I am practically in the Earth's core. I'm swimming in prehistoric magma right now. If magma was ice-cold, instead of hot."

"Kai…"

"The least the universe can do is deliver fantasies to my exact specifications, don't you think? Now the Bonnie I asked for was wearing a red bik-."

"I'm not some wet dream, you jerk," she shouted, horrified, yanking her hand back. He had been pushing ever so slightly against it. "Get up!" And for emphasis, she struck him with her open palm and a bolt of magic.

"Ow! Can everybody stop assuming I'm into kinky stuff? What the hell kind of fantasy is this?"

"Will you stop calling me that?"

He shook his head, rubbed his eyes with one hand, and glared at her. Then suddenly, he sat up with a yelp, his eyes bugging. "Bonnie?" he yelled. "Are you really here?"

"Yes, you prick. I'm here to rescue you," she snapped.

He blinked. Looked behind her. Looked behind him. Looked up. Looked everywhere but at her. "No, you're not. You can't be," he said slowly. "They're playing with my head. They've done that before." He kept _not_ looking at her, and she suddenly realized that he was talking – or trying to talk – to someone close by. "Whose idea was this? Iceman? Cherokee? Ginger-dee or Ginger-dum?"

"Kai…"

"Can't a man get a little privacy here? I'm not going to last long if you can't even let me escape into my own head…"

Bonnie slapped him, her gloved palm leaving a red print across his face.

He looked at her then, shock washing over his face. He raised his hand to touch his cheek. "That didn't feel like a vamp-dream," he said stupidly. "Why would they put a dream in my head of Bonnie Bennett slapping me? On second thoughts, don't answer that..."

"Get up, Kai!" she yelled. "We don't have all day. The Northern Lights are about to start and unless you want your new besties to tag along…"

He was breathing hard now and still staring hard at her, as if he dared not look away or she would disappear. She could see disbelief warring with hope on his face.

The hope was desperate, and painful to look at and she hated herself for feeling even one iota of pity for him. So she forced it down as she got to her feet. "Come on, Kai. Unless you're enjoying yourself here…?"

Kai swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I swear if this is another twisted mind game, I don't care what it takes, but I will find out who came up with this fucked up idea and I will rip out their heart." And his voice was cold and cruel – and she was grateful to hear it because that was the voice of the man she hated beyond measure.

"Good to know." She leaned over and stretched out her hand. He hesitated for a fraction, then he took it. A frisson of something – magic, probably – passed from his hand to hers, even through the gloves and his eyes locked into her own, making her breath stutter. It took everything in her not to yank away. Instead, she broke that locked gaze and held on firmly. His weight almost dragged her down, and since she wasn't moving her hand from her knife, she had to work one-handed. But somehow she got them both upright. She let go off his hand the moment he was standing, shaking out the tingles that were climbing from her palm to her elbow.

They stood, staring at each other. Bonnie felt apprehension rising in her gut as she saw the light of realization, then acceptance dawning in his eyes.

She took a deep breath, and spoke with as much venom as she could muster. "This is only going to work if we work together. My friends are waiting on the other side and if you dare try to kill me or trap me here, I promise you Gemini coven or no coven…"

"Now I know this isn't a dream," he said, his equally cold voice cutting through her speech as he stepped towards her. "Forgive me, _Bonster_. I know you have this big threatening speech all rehearsed for me but I'm going to take a rain-check because we need to start running now."

She glared up at him. "We need to find the Ascendant first, _Kai_."

His eyes glinted. "I already have it, _Bonnie_."

That gave her pause, then her suspicions came back. "Let me see it."

He laughed, tut-tutted. "So you can stab me with a pick-axe and take off?" He was near enough to glare down menacingly at her.

Her hand tightened on her knife. "I came back for you, you jerk."

His eyes glanced down her arm, and he scoffed. "I don't know why I have all these unreasonable trust issues with you right now but you just have to accept that I do."

"Damn it, K-"

"Can we at least move this discussion to somewhere a bit safer?"

"I can sense anything from a mile away. Nothing's going to surprise me. Show me the Ascendant or I swear, Kai…"

"Fine. Let's do a locator spell." He was tugging at his glove. "Since you're so eager to feel up my chest a-"

She felt it step through her perimeter – it was cold and empty and made her think of black holes and vacuums. Made her think of Kai in his prison world every-time he unleashed his power at her. Only this was ten times worse.

And it was moving fast.

Bonnie's eyes locked with Kai's, and she saw the stark panic – fear even – in his face.

"Bonnie!"

She felt the air shift as the creature flew toward them – felt its breath almost on her neck.

And she went flying into the cold ground and only barely registered Kai's hands shoving her out of the way. She landed with an _oomph,_ face down and eating snow. She turned quickly to see the two figures struggling in front of her. The heretic had landed on Kai instead; she could barely make out the creature's face or if it was even male or female, just silver-blond hair flying as it clung to Kai who was desperately trying to shake it off. Kai's magic set its coat aflame and it still clung, its teeth digging into his neck.

It yanked itself back with a scream as Bonnie's aneurysm struck it. It staggered away from Kai, and turned silver eyes to her where she stood with both hands outstretched.

Gold lights were swirling in them.

"Bonnie…! Stop…!" Kai was shouting.

She sent another aneurysm at it and now it laughed, the gold in its eyes glowing brighter. It was a man, tall and large, with sharp high cheekbones. He was beautiful, the way a black hole was beautiful. And he was coming towards her, glee stark on his face.

His hands clamped on her cheeks, rings burning into her cold face, and she felt the rush of magic violently pulled out of her body like a hook in her stomach violently tugging out her guts. Either she had forgotten how it felt when Kai siphoned her. Or this was a hundred times worse. Pain exploded in her head and she fell to her knees, screaming; the creature was falling with her, his hands tight on her face, gold swirling so rapidly in its eyes that it made her dizzy to look. His face was ecstatic.

"Bonnie!"

Her fear reached a crescendo and Expression exploded out of her like a supernova, the volatile power rising with her fear to protect her. The heretic's face was no longer joyful but suffused with something like fear; its eyes now glowing so brightly that she couldn't stare at them anymore. She felt his hands tugging _from_ her – like if he was trying to let go but couldn't. His mouth opened wide in a silent shout.

Her head was still pounding, tears streaming down her face as magic gushed out of her body like her life's blood. Only infinitely worse.

Then the contact was broken. And she staggered, gasping, to see Kai behind the creature, throwing it into the snow.

It rolled and stopped, in a sitting position. Its mouth was still open, and the horror on its face had only increased with the horror that was now _its_ face. The bright streaks of gold had ripped through eyeballs, and skin. Its veins were lit with gold, and they were bursting in front of Bonnie's eyes, leaking out magic like water from a puncture skein.

It finally screamed, but it wasn't words but magic that poured out of its mouth, almost blinding her. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. Absentmindedly, she felt Kai near her, and she turned instinctively to hold on to him.

Finally, it imploded, its body collapsing into itself, leaving only a bright mushroom, golden and black, that hovered over it for a moment, then zoomed upwards into the atmosphere.

Bonnie watched it go, heart pounding. Then she turned to look at Kai Parker's shocked face.

He was so close, that she could see her breath mist over his skin, feel the warmth of his on her face. Both of them were gasping, from cold and shock. He was staring at her with wonder in his grey eyes.

"How did you…" He started, then laughed, looked away, stared back at her. Laughed again. Stared harder. "Bon…"

She could barely make out the words. "Can we go now, Kai?"

He laughed again. She wondered if he was losing it. She felt like if she was. "Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

 _June 2014_

"Bonnie," Matt was groaning from where he laid shivering and bleeding on the ground. "Are you OK?"

Caroline put Bonnie down on the floor, placed one hand on her cheek and put the bleeding wrist of the other hand to Bonnie's lips.

Bonnie moaned gratefully as she gulped down the vampire blood, then she pushed her friend's hand away. "I'm fine… Matt… He got shot…"

Faster than Bonnie could blink, Caroline was by his side. When she held her wrist against his mouth, he grimaced – Bonnie knew Matt's reservations about vampire healing – but he was sensible this time, and swallowed.

Both humans healed, Care rested on her haunches and stared at them worriedly. "Will you guys be OK? I should go after Stefan and the others."

The vampire brothers and Tyler had rushed out of the room, ignoring the calls to come back.

"Stupid. That's how we lost Enzo," Matt mumbled as he pulled himself into a seating position.

"Go, Care," Bonnie said. "Those idiots will only-"

"Save your life with minimal damage to your cute little place and this is how you thank us?" Damon drawled, swinging the door open almost into Caroline's face if she hadn't edged away in the nick of time. He sauntered into the house, ahead of Tyler and Stefan, who Caroline rushed to in concern.

In response to Damon's remark, Bonnie stared pointedly at the blood-stains on the carpet, then in the direction of her room where there were scorch marks and a broken window. At least.

He shrugged. "Told you not to skimp on renter's insurance."

* * *

 _April 2013_

"Come on."

Bonnie was running as fast as she could through a snowy forest in 1903 Mystic Falls, feeling Expression running through her, lighting her bones like fire. The snow was falling fast now and she could barely make Kai out ahead of her, but she could feel his essence, pulsing brightly and streaked with hers – residue of the healing spell she had used to revive him what now felt like a lifetime ago.

Behind them, she could feel the aura of the heretic ebb as it stirred. She had sensed it a few minutes ago from the distance. But now it was gaining ground on them.

She could have used magic to give herself a boost of speed but that demonstration from that… _creature_ … had made her wary, paranoid almost. She dared not release even a single spike of power that could be used against her. She glared balefully at Kai's back in front of her.

God, how she hated these siphoners. Witches, vampires, the lot of them.

Perhaps it was the sheer fury of her thoughts that made her miss the raised root, and go sprawling into the snow.

 _"Bonnie!"_

Pushing past her disorientation, she scrambled to her hands and feet, and tried to stand up. Then she felt a bolt of power and something large and fiery grabbed her, and shoved her back into the snow.

Hair and skin almost the color of ice and teeth that were just as sharp.

 _It was the same one._

And with a nauseating jolt, Bonnie remembered that death to a Prisoner of this World was meaningless.

" _Pretty little witch_ ," and now _its_ voice was in her head, whispering like a snake's forked tongue, " _You caught me unawares. My apologies. Now I am primed to indulge in that intoxicating magic you possess so abundantly_."

She shoved with her hands and a _Motus_ that ripped out of her instinctively but it only slid back a few feet, its ice eyes swirling with gold strands of her own power, a macabre smile on its face, then it bent its head and tore through her side.

Bonnie screamed. Her head slammed into the snow and she saw the stars blinking over her, her body on fire as her blood and her magic – brutal, merciless Expression – were sucked out of her wound.

Once again, she felt that wicked tug of power from her body. But this time with the blood, it was worse. How was that even possible?

Then the stars were blocked with something large and black and she felt the teeth ripping out of her flesh. Which made her scream some more.

She scrambled away, her hand already on her side as she chanted something to douse the throbbing. It was barely enough. Beside her, there were sounds of a scuffle, but she was disoriented from the pain and shock of losing both her blood and her magic.

Still, she forced herself to focus, to make out the two figures grappling in the stone. Kai was astride the heretic, his arm swinging repeatedly as he jabbed into the creature with a familiar, wicked-looking blade. But even as she watched, the heretic's hand shot up, grabbing him by the throat, and the flesh turned red where they touched.

" _Ossux_!" Bonnie screamed in her head, stretching out her hand and the wrist choking Kai snapped. The heretic hissed as Kai scrambled away.

Her second _Ossux_ flew – right into the heretic's outstretched hand.

It grinned at her, eyes swirling. _"You'll have my attention in a moment,"_ it snarled as it splayed its fingers. Bonnie felt the _Motus_ pull her off the ground like a noose around her neck. A tightening noose… The white world turned grey…

Then she was free, falling in a rough, but gentle heap to her feet. She stumbled, but refused to fall, blinking away the dark edges of her vision until she had found Kai's dark hair and his thin strong hands, burning red where they gripped the other's face, his thumbs hooked through the sockets, tugging at them. She scooped up a fist of snow in the ground, packed it into a ball, whispered under her breath then lobbed it at the fighting men.

She barely had the strength for a good throw but magic did the rest, sending the ball flying, then flaming and striking the heretic directly at its ear and through. For a moment, the creature was frozen, its hands locked on Kai's neck, choking him. Then Kai stepped back, pushing him away and the man fell sideways.

There was emptiness in the spaces where his eyes belonged. A few feet away, the ball of scorched blackness rolled to a stop, next to a mess of goo and eyes.

Kai limped to stand in front of her, bending over with his hands on his knees. "Good throw," he said hoarsely, then broke into a bout of coughing. "An inch off-aim and I'd be the one with snowballs. Get it?" His thin, unshaven face was streaked with mirth. He actually looked like if he was enjoying himself.

Of course, anything was an improvement from being eaten by a bunch of witch-vampires.

"That was the same one that attacked us before, wasn't it?" she asked him.

He snickered. "PWR's a bitch, ain't it?"

"PWR?"

"Prison World Resuscitation. To make it worse, these suckers don't die easy." He snickered again. "Suckers? Get it?"

She clenched her fists, felt Expression tingle against her knuckles. "I killed him the first time."

He scoffed. "You got lucky, caught him off-guard. Saw what happened now. He'll suck you up like a Slurpee. Better save those Bennett batteries to get us out of here."

"How do we kill them then?"

"Haven't quite figured that out, yet. Too busy staying alive."

"Come on, Kai," she said wearily, getting to her feet.

"Gimme a moment. Took a little magic to fight that bastard. And I think your spell is wearing off."

That was inevitable. She had lost more magic in two short moments than she ever had before.

But they couldn't wait. Not for one moment. "We have to keep going. The others…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not worried. You'll keep me safe." He winked at her.

Anger and hate rushed through her. He was enjoying this. Her rescuing him. Her saving him. Her risking her life for _his_ sake.

She walked up to him, right into his space and saw with satisfaction the way the mirth slid from his eyes, wariness filling its place. "We've killed one but the others will soon be at our heels." Her voice thickened with spite. "I think it's getting close to their meal-time. Wanna stick around when they get hungry and start looking for their snack?"

His face twisted with anger – his mood change as abrupt as it was familiar and she braced herself for it – the attack that she'd been expecting from the moment he opened his eyes after her spell had revived him.

Perhaps he had been too grateful at being rescued to care that it was Bonnie doing it. Or perhaps he was waiting until the rescue was over to turn on her.

But now looking up at his furious face, she knew he wasn't waiting any longer.

Bonnie was almost glad for it. Her hand rushed to her belt… Her knife was gone.

Immediately, her eyes flew to the spot in the snow where she had seen him stab the heretic –

– _when did he take it? The first attack? Their run? How did I miss it?_ –

– She called it to her hand – but a shade too late. She watched in dismay as it landed in Kai's own magical grip.

He waved it nonchalantly in front of his face, his eyes glinting the same steel-blue as the blade. "Well, isn't this familiar?"

 _'All I need is Bennett blood…'_

 _Standing by that tree stump, watching the light catch his sister's knife – this same knife – as he tossed it and smiled craftily._

Fear splintered through Bonnie and she shot to her feet, pushing out a _motus_ strong enough to send him crashing into a tree.

Or meant to. His free hand caught both hers, and she felt the spell fizzle out. He was yelling something but she was still on attack, pushing out an aneurysm with her mind… Kai was shouting, and she felt his own magic rise defensively…

When she saw he was holding the knife at her, hilt-first.

She paused, halted magic cackling in the air between them, as she stared from the knife to the man who was all but cursing her with his eyes.

"Take the stupid knife, Bonnie," Kai panted, shoving it so that it poked her jacket.

She hesitated – what's the catch? – and he cocked his head, his eyes narrowed mockingly. "Unless you still want to play tag…"

The echo of her own thoughts not long ago rattled her; and Bonnie snatched her hands free, then grabbed the knife, pushed it into its sheath in her belt. Trap or not, she'll figure it out while she had the advantage.

"I swear Kai, if you try anything, anything at all…"

"You'll… what? Stab me in the back? Serve me up to heretics?"

Her hands curled into fists. For a moment, she and Kai just glared at each other, breathing so hard and angrily that steam clouded between their faces.

He was the one that broke the _impasse_. "We don't have time for this," he snarled. Without another word, he picked her up, hissing as her hexed hands burned his coat, and flung her over his shoulder and started running. "You're slowing us down!"

Part of Bonnie's brain told her that this actually made sense – with her shorter legs, she was slowing him down and revived as he was, he had a boost of energy that they should put to good use. The other part of her, felt sick from hanging upside down, staring down at endless white, and being in close physical contact with Kai Parker – and that part kept screaming at him to put her down that instant.

He didn't though and in a few minutes, she stopped screaming for him to drop her and started screaming that he run faster. Because she felt them coming nearer.

They were more. And, curse her ill-timed joke, she was right.

They were hungry.

* * *

 _June 2014_

"I said it," Damon was telling Stefan. "I knew Little Miss Organized here wouldn't have skipped on the pow-wow unless she was in mortal danger. And there you all were thinking she had overslept."

Bonnie nodded eagerly. This was not the time to tell them that actually, she _had_ overslept. The heretic attack had come later.

"Did you find her?" Caroline asked. Although since the three men had returned without the crisped body of a red-headed heretic, Bonnie guessed the answer was no.

Tyler said, "She was gone by the time we got there. Must have regenerated and zapped off."

Matt shook his head. "Or just cloaked herself and lurked nearby, waiting for some sucker to walk into her trap and get eaten. It was stupid of you to chase after her. We stick together against these things."

"Save the lecture, Boy Scout," Damon snapped. "She attacked Bonnie. I wanted her blood."

Bonnie felt warmth suffuse through her.

"More like she'd have got some of ours. Matt's right," Stefan murmured.

"I care about Bonnie, too," Matt said quickly. "But we have to be practical."

Caroline's blood had kicked in and Bonnie felt stronger, recovered from both the heretic's violent attack and her equally violent healing. She started pulling herself from the floor to sit down on the lone armchair, and Matt rushed to help her. He had changed into a shirt that Caroline found – a shirt that looked suspiciously like Stefan's – an observation that Damon had made loudly and to everyone's amusement. Everyone, that is, except Stefan and Caroline.

"You know I'd have gone after that heretic if it had been the right call," Matt told Bonnie now, staring at her earnestly, as he perched on the armchair after settling her in. His arm was warm and comforting over the back of the chair.

She shoved him lightly. "Of course, I do, Matt." She peered at him in concern, and murmured, "You OK?"

"Good as new," he said wryly. "You?"

Out of habit, she checked her neck and felt the skin whole under the blood. Spotting that, Caroline passed her a wipe for her fingers and started dabbing at her neck with another one.

"What did she want, Bonnie?" she asked now.

Bonnie quickly narrated the conversation with the heretic.

Tyler whistled. "What the hell does she want with Expression?"

"I have no idea," Bonnie said.

"They're already super-powered, un-killable killing machines. What harm could they come up with a little more super-magic?" Damon drawled.

"We have to keep you safe, Bonnie," Caroline said. She squeezed into the seat with Bonnie, and put her arm around her, displacing Matt who landed with a thump on the floor. Both girls ignored the glare he sent up at them – or the way Tyler snickered. "They tried this once and they'll probably try it again."

"Why's that, I wonder?" Stefan asked.

Everyone turned to him.

"Why couldn't she drain out your magic? They've managed to do that for every other witch, vampire or supernatural so far. What's the difference with you, Bonnie?"

Tyler's smile turned to a scowl. Caroline inhaled sharply and glared at Stefan. Damon looked like if he was going to beat his brother up right there and then.

Matt's eyes on Stefan were hard and his voice was icy. "If I didn't know better, Stefan, I'd swear you're disappointed the heretic didn't kill Bonnie."

Stefan shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here."

"What's going on here is that Bonnie is lucky to be alive," Caroline snapped. "And you need to shut up if you can't say anything helpful."

Everyone started talking at once. Stefan was defending himself in calm, measured tones that were only making Damon, Caroline and Matt increasingly louder and angrier. Tyler started by playing peacemaker, and trying to get them back to neutral ground and talk strategy. Then after a while, he gave up and went to fetch a beer from the fridge.

That seemed to do the trick because the next moment, Matt, Damon and Stefan had helped themselves to cans too – which made Damon bitch about the girls not stocking up on bourbon – which set Caroline off on him as well.

Bonnie registered all this with half her attention. The other half was replaying Georgiana Parker's teeth tearing through her neck and her magic rushing to her skin and staying there.

Stefan's question, hurtful as it was poised, was a valid one.

Furtively, Bonnie stared at the black mark on her wrist.

* * *

 _Portland, Oregon_

"Does the name Stewart ring a bell?"

It was mid-day. Alaric was at school, calling as he usually did to ask how all his girls were doing.

Jo assured him that they were all doing great. It was a full house that day with Gab and Liv both in. The conversation was drawing to a close, and Jo was in the middle of scooping out ice cream from the tub, when the unexpected question popped up, making her freeze. "Nope. Should it?"

"I don't know. It's the name of the woman that died in this Mystic Falls/ Heretics business. When Bonnie mentioned it, it rang a bell."

Jo shifted the phone on her shoulder and thought of a good reply. "Mmm… Now that I think of it, it does sound a little familiar. Want me to take a look into it?"

"You don't mind?"

"I'm a desperate housewife. It's in the job description to be nosy."

"You're not a desperate housewife. You're a wonderful mother who spends an incredible number of hours taking care of our children. And before that, you were an amazing doctor who spent an incredible number of decades taking care of lots of other people's children. There's nothing desperate about you, Jo Saltzman."

Before she had met Alaric Saltzman, Jo had thought of herself as quite an unsentimental woman. But now? "Someone is going to get lucky tonight," she promised.

He was still whooping when she ended the call.

She grinned, as she decided to grab the whole tub, and take it upstairs. She passed the nursery where Gab was carrying one of the twins over her shoulder. Gab caught her eye and pressed a finger to her mouth and Jo nodded, moving on. She had persuaded the nanny to spend the night so she really was going to deliver on her promise to Alaric.

Her mind went back to her husband's question and her grin faded.

She moved along the corridor, almost walking by Liv's open door, but then she caught the tail end of a harsh whisper.

"Stop trying to screw me over!"

Jo hesitated, worried.

Liv was pacing the room in angry strides, her curly hair all but sparking with temper. She turned, starting a little when she saw Jo, then beckoned her sister over.

Jo stepped in, hesitantly.

 _Work._ Liv whispered around the phone. _Just hold a sec._ Then she turned back to her call. "We had a contract. Clear terms and conditions. If you don't live up to your part of the bargain, I'm going to walk and you'll find out just how easy it is to get someone of my skillset."

She switched off her phone and let out a strangled scream.

Jo gaped. "Woah, what's that all about?"

Liv looked angry enough to explode. "Office bullshit." She ran her fingers through her curls, making them even wilder and messier than they already were. "My idiot co-workers think they can pull a fast one on me." She breathed hard, her eyes flashing.

Jo tut-tutted. She knew all too well from her own professional career how often freelance workers, like Liv, drew the short straw when it came to office politics. Your more ruthless colleagues saw you as an easy mark. Her stoic younger sister was not one to bring work drama home so for her to be so upset now, she was clearly having a hard time.

Jo may have missed out almost two decades of Liv's life, and a few months of cohabiting wasn't going to undo that. But there were certain things that hadn't changed.

For example, whenever Livvie-poo had a tantrum, there was usually one quick fix.

She held out the bowl.

"Ice cream?" Jo offered.

Moments later, and the Parker women were sitting on the floor of Liv's bedroom, tucking into the whole bowl. Liv was a bit hesitant at first – something about calories – until Jo promised to teach her a spell for that. "Not exactly orthodox," she warned. "And it helped that I had a Bennett BFF to spell it with. But maybe if you asked Bonnie, she could help you with that, too."

So Liv tucked in, and two spoons later, she was visibly calmer.

She looked over at Jo now, with raised eyebrows. "You knew Abby Bennett, didn't you?"

"She lived in Portland for some time. We went to grade school together. She was half the reason why I went to Virginia. The other half was her mother."

"Wasn't that a bit counterintuitive? I thought the whole idea of you running away was to get away from magic?" Liv asked, her voice suddenly sharp. She stared at her spoon intently.

Jo glanced at her sister, wondering how long that question had festered inside Liv. They had talked about family a lot, over this past year. Liv mostly asked about her mother whom she barely remembered. But this was the first time she had ever brought up Jo's decision to leave.

Jo chose her words carefully. "When I left the coven, I didn't want to be around anything that would draw me back to magic. Not even family." She gave her sister an intent look but Liv's face was steadfastly blank. "But if not for the Bennetts, I wouldn't have lasted three months in the real world before I went crawling back. I needed them." _I didn't choose them over you,_ she added silently, hoping that the words she did say out loud had managed to convey that.

The silence that followed was loud with everything that went unsaid.

Liv broke it. "So did you ever meet Bonnie as a kid?" The question was asked matter-of-factly, her face relaxed. Whatever she thought of Jo's answer, it hadn't bothered her too much.

Jo chuckled. "I used to babysit her until she was three or so." After that, Abby had left her family and Rudy Hopkins had closed ranks on all things witchcraft.

But magic had not been the problem with that marriage, Jo thought sadly.

She reached for the tub and caught a strange – slightly nauseated – expression on Liv's face.

"What?" Jo asked, surprised.

"Nothing. Just… Thinking of something funny."

"Funny ha ha or funny weird?"

"You know what? I'm not so sure."

Jo shrugged. She wasn't one to pry. "So what did the guys at the firm do to make you so pissed, anyway?"

Liv's face clouded, getting mad all over again and making Jo sorry that she asked.

Liv swallowed her spoonful of cream, her jaw working furiously. When she finally answered, her voice shook slightly. "Tried to take out some of the work from my scope. After clearly telling me I was responsible for everything. Then they were going to short change me, too."

Jo scowled. "Is that even legal?"

"Technically it is. Ethically, it stinks and they know it." Her face darkened further. "I have half a mind to hex all of them until next Friday." She bit her lip then, and gave Jo a guilty glance. "I'm not going to, I promise."

Jo rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to snitch to Dad. Heck, if I had magic, I'd probably help you. No one screws with my little sister and gets away with it."

That made Liv smile, some of the anger fleeing from her face. "I was more worried about the great coven leader, actually."

"I'm not going to tell him either. Especially as I have no idea where he is."

Liv laughed. "Yeah, right."

Where did that come from? "Liv?"

Liv gave her a pointed look. "Dad's been calling me too. I tried calling Kai for what it's worth, but his phone's been switched off all day. Why don't you just tell Dad that Kai's gone to Virginia?"

"Has he? Do you know that for a fact?"

"Come off it, Jo."

"Seriously, Liv. I have no idea where Kai is. Like I told Dad, maybe he's in Brooklyn? Or in NOLA, negotiating with the Nine Covens? Which, by the way, is kind of important. If they're really being wooed by the Augustine Society, they're borderline violating our treaties."

"You know, that's never made any sense to me. The Augustine Society died with the last Whitmore heir."

"Rumour has it that it's been revived."

Liv shook her head, disbelieving. "I don't doubt that some mundane secret society is chatting up the Nine. I just doubt that it's Augustine."

"Well, you should know better than me." Jo shrugged. "If Kai's not in NOLA for the Nine, then he might be there to consult the Southern Court about the dragon pretenders."

Liv choked on her spoon. "Honestly, Jo? You mean, you're going to sit here and pretend that you don't know anything about whatever's happening between your twin and Bonnie Bennett?"

Jo grinned. "Now, I didn't say that."

Liv eyed her sister. "Well, _I_ only found out when he showed up here the day after she arrived and they nearly set the smoke detectors off just talking. And suddenly a lot of stuff started making sense. Exactly how long has this been going on?"

"We really shouldn't be talking about the Praetor in such a disrespectful way," Jo said primly and Liv groaned, "but we're all family here and it's important we share these things!"

So naturally, she spilled everything she knew. Her first inkling had been her own bachelorette party turned nightmare when Lily Salvatore had almost killed Bonnie, and Jo had witnessed first-hand her brother's reaction to the possibility of losing Bonnie. Not pretty. After that, it was merely a matter of her having eyes and using them. Months later, when Alaric repeated what the conversation he had with her brother during Jo's false labor, it had been a mere confirmation of her own conclusions.

"Wow," Liv said at the end. She looked slightly dazed, her round eyes impossibly rounder. She shook her head. "You know that technically, Kai's old enough to be Bonnie's dad?"

Jo choked. "Oh my god, Liv!"

"But it's true. Abby was your age."

"Stop skeeving me out. He was in limbo for most of her life. It doesn't count. Besides her friends are dating vampires that could be their ancestors. Kai's practically a teen in contrast."

Liv still looked skeptical, and slightly nauseated; and Jo realized the reason for the 'funny' thought that had passed through her sister's head a while ago. But thankfully, Liv dropped that particular line of questioning and asked instead, "So I'm guessing you think they have a chance?"

"As much a chance as the rest of us. Two years ago, I thought I was going to be some old cat lady and now I'm married to a wonderful man, with two beautiful girls. Bonnie's friends hooked up with the Salvatore vampires, so there's a precedent there."

"And the moment the doppelganger turned human again, she gave _her_ old man the boot so there's precedent there as well," Liv snarked.

Jo rolled her eyes.

"How's Gilbert, anyway?" Liv asked, her eyes glinting. "Are you guys still in touch?"

"She liked all the twins' new pictures on Facebook," Jo said with a smile. "But other than a few mails last Fall, we haven't really _really_ connected. She's busy. She chose a crazy career for herself. Amazing, rewarding but demanding as hell." Pride fluttered in Jo's heart. She had bonded with Elena Gilbert long before she knew who the girl was, magically – and she had recognized a lot of herself in the younger woman. It gave Jo immense gratification that – also like her own self – Elena had risen above the tragedy and craziness that had plagued her early life and chosen to make a difference in the world.

She threw a guilty glance at her younger sister, suddenly sensitive to how Liv might feel about Jo's big-sisterly affection for yet another woman close to her own age.

But Liv merely looked speculative, not at all like if she was jealous or upset or trying to pretend she wasn't either.

"Well, Caroline is still with Stefan Salvatore," Jo said, changing the topic back. "That precedent still stands for Bonnie and Kai." Her thoughts became speculative. "And if our Praetor can snag a Bennett, after centuries of our coven courting them that would pretty much seal our coven _and_ our family's ranks in the pecking order for centuries."

Liv's spoon was half-way to her mouth when Jo said that; and she stopped to give her sister a look of disgust. "Yeah, that's music to a girl's ears. 'Baby, your bloodline gets me all hot and bothered. Come make witchy babies with me. Forget the part where they'll eat each other when they turn twenty-two."

"Stop pretending to be a mundane for a few minutes, Olivia and imagine where the next generation of Parkers can go with Bennett lineage." Jo's head spun just contemplating the possibilities.

"Well, don't start printing out the wedding cards yet. That dream of yours will probably never come to pass. What with Bonnie being so anti-Kai at the moment."

"She'll get over it."

"Will he?"

"What do you mean?"

Liv smirked, her eyes shining with mischief. "She had a very interesting conversation with Alaric yesterday morning about Kai. Went on and on about how hooking up with him was a mistake. And she said all this in the kids' nursery. With the monitor switched on. Guess who was in the kitchen to hear the whole thing?"

Jo stared at her sister, eyes boggling. "No effing way."

"Yep. Kai was downstairs. He arrived shortly before Douglas Parkinson. I was rounding up my presentation and I heard the whole thing." Her smirk broadened. "Should have seen his face, Jo. He turned as white as sheet. He looked like if he was going to pass out. Or cry." Liv sounded the opposite of sympathetic.

"Oh Kai," Jo whispered softly, her heart aching for her twin.

Liv snickered, and stuffed her face some more.

"They'll get past it," Jo said confidently.

"Will they?" Liv sounded doubtful. "Still think he's in Virginia?"

" _You_ 're the one who thinks he's in Virginia." Jo declared, frustrated. "Why are you so fixated on…?" And that was when it occurred to her. She peered hard at Liv. "You know I took psych during my residency."

Liv groaned. "That sentence never ends well, Jo."

Jo ignored her. "And all this harping on about Virginia and other people's love lives seems to me like a classic case of transference. Is someone feeling a little homesick? A little Lockwood-sick?"

Liv shrugged nonchalantly, but her cheeks went slightly pink.

"You know you can always hop over to Mystic Falls and help them out with their heretic problem," Jo suggested half-heartedly.

Jo always felt more than a little guilty about Liv's social life – or rather, her lack of one. After moving to Portland, Liv had gone clubbing, gone on regular dates with someone from her office, and even got her passport stamped a couple of times. But all that had ended after the twins had born. As much as Jo loved and trusted Gab, she hadn't shaken off the misgivings from early in the pregnancy when there had been talk in the coven of taking the twins from her. It was part of the reason why Jo wasn't in a hurry to go back to work. And it was the reason why Liv was more or less grounded since their birth. The parties, the sort-of-boyfriend and the holidays hadn't meshed with her new role as full-time Aunt.

"And leave you at the mercy of Gab?" Liv muttered, stirring her ice cream and turning it into slush, oblivious to how much worse her words were making her sister feel.

Jo was about to answer that when a phone rang. Both of them stared at Liv's immediately, until they realized it was coming from Jo's pocket. She picked it up and then groaned at the caller. "Dad."

Liv made a 'sucks to be you' face and pulled the bowl into her lap. For someone who had been so worried about calories, Jo thought with some temper, her baby sister was really helping herself to most of the ice cream.

Jo took the call in the corridor, and was already mentally preparing herself for the usual questions and her usual answers: "I don't know where Kai is, Dad. If he calls, I'll let him know you want to speak to him."

But Joshua Parker was calling about something different.

The conversation barely lasted ten minutes but by the end of it, Jo was filled with disquiet. She stood for a moment, thoughts running through her head. Was Kai behind this?

She turned to go back to Liv's room and nearly screamed. Gab was standing right in front of her, so close that Jo could see the tiny blue veins in her face.

"Gab," she said, still gasping. "You startled me."

Gab's blue eyes were glittering; and her face was undecipherable. "Did I, Josie?"

"Gab…?"

"Told Livvie to stop eating that crap." Jo realized with some dismay that Gab had confiscated the ice cream. Instinctively, Jo reached for the tub, then drew her hands back quickly when the agate rings on the old woman's gnarly fingers seemed to spark with outrage. "Girls are asleep. Come down and I'll get us all a proper dinner."

She trotted around Jo, and shuffled off.

Jo gaped after her. Then she went back to Liv's room, half-expecting to find Liv pissed as hell. She hoped that Liv hadn't given up their ice cream without a fight.

Instead, she found Liv crawling half-way under her bed.

"You won't find it there," Jo drawled.

Liv's head shot up, banging her head against the bed frame, and swearing. She crawled out to stare at her sister with narrowed eyes. "You know where it is?"

"Er… we're both talking about the mocha vanilla, right?"

"Oh, that." Liv scowled. "You need to do something about her. She's out of control." She got to her feet, and strode to her closet.

"She's mellowed," Jo retorted. "You should have met her thirty years ago. Even Kai was scared of her." She tilted her head, thinking. "Come to think of it, I think he still is."

Liv didn't chuckle, as Jo had expected. Although she probably hadn't heard Jo since she was intent on flinging out all the contents of her closet to the floor.

"What are you looking for?" Jo asked, alarmed.

Liv popped out her head, her hair springing at gravity-defying angles. "My… Never mind. It's nothing important."

"Really?" Jo asked, highly skeptical. It was a lot of effort looking for something not important.

Liv heaved an impatient sigh. "Fine. I loaned Bonnie Bennett some of our grimoires and I think she may have borrowed a couple."

"You _think_?" Jo squeaked.

Liv rolled her eyes. "Pretend you didn't hear that?"

"Olivia, if the council finds out…"

"They won't find out because you won't tell them." She gave Jo an irritated look. "Come on. It's _Bonnie Bennett_. The superhero. Not some random witch from a rival coven. The Grimoires are fine." But her eyes were worried and her brows were creasing. She turned back to her closet and started throwing her things back in.

"Olivia…"

"So what did Dad want anyway?" Liv said sharply, in an obvious attempt to change the topic.

Jo refused to be side-tracked. "Get those Grimoires back, before anyone realizes they're gone. I mean it."

"Don't worry about them, OK?" Liv sighed. "Thank goodness, Kai's AWOL, right? What did you tell Dad this time?"

"He wasn't calling about Kai. Well, he asked about Kai, but this time there was something different." Jo grimaced, remembering.

Liv paused in the middle of her own idea of tidying up, to give her sister a puzzled look. "What's wrong, Jo?"

Jo sat down on the second bed heavily. "Not a single thing. It's actually good news." She looked up at her sister's worried face and schooled hers into a smile. "Remember the witches that left after Kai became Praetor? And how some still stayed back even after Dad joined the Council and vouched for him?"

Liv nodded.

"Well, during the past week, a handful have reached out to the coven. Today the Council got calls from over a dozen." She took a deep breath. "They're coming back, Liv."

Liv gaped. "That's… that's unbelievable. I was so sure… I thought…with Kai as Praetor… Some of those families swore never to return."

"Well, they have now. It looks like our Praetor has been busy for a while."

Liv's eyes were almost falling out of her head. "You think Kai's responsible for this?"

"I'm sure of it." Jo said with firmness she didn't feel. "Well, now we can't keep assuming that the Praetor's in Virginia."

Liv wasn't fooled. "If he's not then someone else is. And whoever that person is, with influence over these witches, sending an influx of his allies back into the coven – that's bad, Jo."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough. The Council will be debriefing all of them in the next few days. They'll tell us what brought about this sudden change of heart. If it's someone up to no good or the Praetor himself." She grimaced. "But it would be so much simpler if Kai was already here."

Liv sighed heavily. "Where _is_ he?"

* * *

 **Author's Note #1** : Edited by the lovely and talented **thenameismaynard** a.k.a. **keenan24** of "By and Down" infamy. Thank you to everyone that wrote and replied. I updated quickly because I didn't want to keep you all hanging indefinitely from that cliff. :) Please if you're reading and enjoying this story, let me know? It helps with morale. ;) And if you're not enjoying it, _definitely_ let me know. I have the story broadly mapped, but I am very flexible to well meant feedback. Thanks again to my reviewers and remember to keep the Bonkai flag flying!


	11. 11

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

* * *

 _June 2014_ ** _._**

 _Ranger, Wyoming_

The weathered old truck pulled up in front of the mountain cabin and the equally old, equally weathered man with greying white skin under thick layers of grey clothing, and a shock of even whiter hair climbed out of it with a rifle over one shoulder and a deer over the other. Without bothering to lock the truck, he trudged around the cabin to the back door with his two burdens.

He dropped the carcass at the top of the steps, opened and stepped through the door, letting it swing close, once more without bothering with a lock.

But as he stepped into the dimly lit house, and hung up his rifle, he whispered a few words and magical wards snapped into place.

Patrice Lang, wizard, exile from the Gemini coven, was home.

He had been up the mountains for a week, without cell reception or any means of communication. His five years out-of-date mobile was dead where he had left it on the mantelpiece, and he found an electric outlet to plug it in, while he sorted out the fireplace.

Once the fire was roaring, he picked up the phone and glanced through the messages.

There was one from Jude, one of the other wizards who had taken up residence in Ranger, asking Patrice to call back urgently. Patrice deleted it at once. Jude still owed him money from his last 'urgent' meeting.

Then Judith Stewart had sent a series of messages, the last one just after she arrived at Virginia. All of them berating him for not coming along. He snorted to himself. While he whole-heartedly endorsed the plan to return Joshua to power, he had no truck for the politics and schemes that Judith and the Ghiaccis were so fond of. When the time came, he would do his part gladly but until then, he was content with his own simple life back here.

Quentin had sent a message as well, asking Patrice imperiously to call the moment he received this. Like hell he would, Patrice thought, deleting it angrily.

The only other messages in his phone were from two unknown numbers. The first was signed as the Sheriff's Department, Mystic Falls, Virginia, asking that he call them as soon as he received the message.

Patrice stared at that one with increasing disquiet.

The last message was short, but its words were plain and it kicked up his anxiety by another notch.

And that was when he felt his wards tingle.

They were being breached. By poachers, who no doubt had caught whiff of the carcass at the back.

He grabbed his gun, and charged his free hand with a latent hex as he strolled out the door.

Almost immediately, he caught whiff of their scent in the air, and his own hackles rose.

"Wolves, you'd best keep hunting!" he growled, his magic pushing his voice out into the cold, silent air. "Or you'll be prey yourselves soon."

Fast as a streak, a trio of grey wolves appeared in front of him. Patrice's fist clenched as he watched them shift their form until standing before him were three young, long-legged, blond men, who looked alike enough to be brothers or at least close cousins.

"Easy there, old-timer." The one in the middle smiled and raised up his hands as he felt the first wave of Patrice's magic, and its clear message:

 _Back off._

"This is your last warning, boys. I make no truck with mongrels."

His companions snarled, but the speaking wolf – the leader of this trio – quelled them with a look.

"You've been off the grid for a year, old man, so you probably don't know that we're all allies here."

Patrice spat on the ground. "I'm Gemini no longer; and I curse the day Joshua's mad boy took over my coven and gave it to Infidels."

The wolf's eyes hardened, but he kept the smile firmly on his face as he took a cautious step forward. "I reckon you'll change your mind when you hear what we have to say."

"Doubt that."

"It's a message from your leader, stupid old man!" one of the other wolves barked.

His own leader turned on him with a snarl, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and shoved him, hard enough to send him flying to the ground.

Barbaric creatures.

The leading wolf turned back to Patrice, easy smile back in place. "Deepest apologies for my brother's rudeness. And for my own. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Thomas of the Randolph pack and these are my brothers. Our pack are allies with your Gemini coven. And yes, we do have a message from your leader."

A prickle of alarm worked its way up Patrice's spine. Judith, Quentin, the Ghiaccis and their schemes. The cryptic messages on his phone. And now this.

"And what might that be? And why the hell is he sending wolves, not witches to deliver it?"

"How about we go out to neutral territory and discuss it?"

"The hell I will. I want no truck with you or with that kin-slayer."

Randolph merely bowed his head, and took a step back. "The other Gemini wizards in this vicinity have already accepted our invitation." His smile turned mocking when Patrice started at that. "Eight o'clock at the Drunken Lady. Drinks are on us."

In a blink, the three men were three wolves again. In another blink, they were gone.

Patrice Lang stood alone on his land, with nothing but a dead deer and his own confusing thoughts to keep him company.

* * *

 _May 2014_

It had been almost a year since Bonnie Bennett had been in Mystic Falls and the change in the town made her heart sink. She drove through quiet streets, past closed-up shops and abandoned playgrounds, and breathed in deeply the air of fear and decay.

Damon had once joked that the boarding house was like a church – its doors were always open; and they were even now. Bonnie walked through them, thinking about how it was pointless to bar the doors from the heretics who didn't need an invitation to enter your home.

"Hello?"

No one answered. She frowned as she walked down the quiet, empty corridor. Damon had told her that they would all be here, waiting for her. But she stretched out her aura and all she sensed was emptiness.

She passed by the doors of the large living room, and a flash of memory hit her. Sitting on the couch beside Elena Gilbert and watching her friend sign the papers to become the owner of this property. Now she wondered if Elena still had possession of the house or if after her estrangement from the Salvatores, she had formally rescinded it. Would the Invitation Spell even still work, now that Elena was Cured? Or had the effect of her former death in lifting the barrier been irreversible?

Bonnie walked ahead. They were supposed to meet at the library. She'd wait there.

A few steps from the library doors, she stopped.

"Hello?"

She was sensing something, wasn't she? It was faint, barely even triggering her aura but it was _there_ … wasn't it?

She tensed, stretching out to _feel_ …

It felt like the rushing essence of something moving very fast through the house – faster than human speed. Too fast for her to discern its nature. A vampire?

On instinct, her magic rushed to her hands.

"Damon? Stefan? Is that you?"

But now she was certain that she wasn't just picking up one presence but two. The second stronger, steadier, familiar and yet…

Whatever it or they were, they were coming closer, close enough to…

Bonnie spun around and sent out a spell to flatten anything living within range.

Her spell rebounded down the walls of the corridor, rattling the portraits and hitting absolutely nothing.

And now that she stretched her senses again, she couldn't feel the presence. Any of them. Had she imagined the whole thing?

By now, she was standing in front of the open doors of the large, empty library. The fireplace glowing in the far side should have been welcoming, but instead it looked like a warning. Bonnie wrapped her arms around herself, suppressing a shiver that even the fire couldn't chill. Barely an hour in this town and she was already spooked. But the time for misgivings had long passed.

Where was everyone anyway?

As if on cue, her phone rang.

"Hey, Bonnie." It was Caroline. She sounded exhausted.

"Care, I'm here. At the Salvatores. Where are you guys?"

"We had a little run-in with the witch-pires," Care gasped.

" _Caroline, are you OK_?"

"Yeah, I'm good. We all are. We think they had come for Tyler, and we kicked their asses."

"It doesn't count if they got away." Matt's voice came through clearly. Caroline had obviously put the phone on speaker.

In the background, Bonnie could make out a laugh that sounded like Tyler's. "I'm alive so it counts for me."

"You're all together, right?"

"Yep, Bonnie." Stefan said. "Stay put. We'll be there in five."

"Not going anywhere. OK then-"

"And Bonnie." It was Damon. "Welcome back."

The line clicked shut. She stared at the phone for a little while and pocketed it.

Bonnie moved through the library slowly, taking casual inventory of everything. Nine months of living in this house had made her more familiar with its rooms than she could imagine. She knew, for example, where they hid the best bourbon. The row in the bookshelf that housed Stefan's prized first editions. She recognized that rug. She had shifted it to place under Mason Lockwood's chair prior to Damon torturing and murdering him. She moved past that quickly.

She didn't recognize the new table in front of the settee. It must have replaced the old one, the one she threw Damon into the last time she was in this house.

She sank into the settee.

She hadn't quite vowed never to step foot into the Salvatore Boarding House again. She certainly hadn't vowed never to return to Mystic Falls again – that wasn't even practical. She had friends here. Property. History going back two centuries.

So why did Bonnie feel like she had let herself down by coming back?

She was still looking at the table, and remembering, when the doors burst open and they all filed in.

Damon. Stefan. Caroline. Matt. Tyler. Even Enzo.

Caroline was her roommate. Matt and Tyler called and emailed every once in a while and they had even driven over to Whitmore during spring break and the four Mystic Falls former rug rats had had a blast. But Bonnie hadn't set eyes on either Salvatores or Enzo since last July.

"Hello, witch," Enzo said, with a slow, appreciative smile as his eyes swept from the top of her simple braid, down the boots that encased her calves and back to her face. "Now you're here, we can do some real damage."

"Enzo," she answered warily.

"Bonnie, I'm glad you made it. It's good to have you back," Stefan said carefully.

"Hey, Stefan," she said simply.

Damon surprised her by dropping into the settee and giving her a half-armed hug. She hadn't been expecting it – hadn't been quite sure what to expect after almost a year of not-quite-estrangement. But the stiff way he embraced her, and didn't quite meet her eyes spoke volumes.

That was the problem with knowing someone as well as she had got to know Damon. It was probably a huge character failing on her part – no, scratch that – it was _definitely_ a huge character failing on her part but four months in an empty world wasn't something Bonnie could squash into a ball and throw into the trash. Even when every instinct within her told her to distrust him, to dislike him, to disapprove of him…

"I almost missed your annoying face," Damon declared.

No matter how sometimes Bonnie wished she could.

But then he'd do something like murder his mother for nearly killing Bonnie and she was right back where she started.

"I almost missed your hyperactive eyebrows," she quipped back.

Tyler clapped his hands together. "Avengers Assemble. I don't know about you guys but I think with Bonnie here Mystic Falls has just maxed out its Supernatural Creatures Quotient."

The others responded with a varying mixture of groans and guffaws at the weak pun but Tyler paid them no mind.

"Now it's time to do some natural selection. Let's drive these goddamn witch-pires out of our goddamn town."

* * *

 _June 2014_

During the 'Crazy Heretic Attacked Bonnie' post-mortem, Tyler brought up the fact that they now had Gemini presence in Mystic Falls.

"What's his name… dude from the Council? Shouldn't we page him or something?"

The others were not overly impressed with this suggestion but Bonnie agreed with Tyler. For what it was worth, they had to use every resource available to them. She didn't even know if he was in Virginia already but it won't hurt to keep him in the loop. Ignoring the ensuing argument, she got out her phone and sent out a message, snickering a little. She had saved his contact details under 'Douglas Asshat'.

Over her head, oblivious to the fact that she had already made up her mind, the debate raged on.

"Until they send us some real help, I'm not checking in with those freaks," Damon declared.

Tyler rolled his eyes. "Can you think with your brain, and not your ego for a moment? Georgiana _Parker_? That name ring a bell?"

Everyone fell silent at that. They had been more focused on the attack, than that tidbit of new information.

"It can't be a coincidence, I guess?" Caroline offered first.

"With that name, from that coven, I doubt it," Tyler answered.

"So maybe the heretics are some long-lost ancestors of the ruling family of freaks?" Damon retorted. "Who cares? The Gemini don't, so why should we? We still need to kill them."

Tyler looked unconvinced. "Does the coven really know this? I don't think there was time in the wedding to exchange pleasantries. If this is new information, it might change their minds."

"Dunno, Tyler. It makes more sense that they have some sort of record of all the people they sent to the Prison Worlds," Matt said.

"It's still worth drawing it to their attention," Tyler insisted. "Maybe it won't make any difference… Maybe there's no relation at all…"

"I'm almost certain there is," Bonnie said. Even in the heat of the attack, it had struck her how familiar-looking Georgiana Parker's face was. Now that she was removed from that moment, the realization came to her. "Apart from the red hair, and before she went into vamp face, she could have been a dead ringer for Liv Parker."

Tyler started, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Doppelganger dead ringer?" Damon asked, with a mischievous grin at his brother who stared stolidly back.

"Not exactly. More like siblings. She looked more like Liv's sister than Jo."

"Even if the Gemini already know this, it's worth looking into ourselves," Matt said and Tyler shot his friend a grateful look. "We could find some way to use that to our advantage."

"I doubt that," Damon declared.

If Tyler's face was any indication, he was about to say something curt and irritated in response to Damon, but Bonnie cut him off. "We can ask the Gemini Councillor when he gets back to us. And before then, I'll give Liv a call. She should be able to give us any information on that." After, of course, she had sorted out that small matter of borrowed spell-books.

On second thoughts, maybe, Bonnie had better call Jo instead.

Stefan gave Bonnie a pointed stare. "Won't the coven leader be the best person to ask?"

The question threw Bonnie, and she stammered a response, acutely aware of the sudden silence and five pairs of curious eyes on her. "I… I mean we… well, we already asked… for help and he … he refused…"

"For help fighting the heretics," Stefan said in a patient way that irritated her. "Asking for information on a name shouldn't be a problem."

"I…"

Matt jumped in. "I say we ask Liv first. If she doesn't know, _then_ we ask her brother."

"Besides, Bonnie was the one who went to Portland. She should know best how to deal with these Gemini," Caroline added, squeezing Bonnie reassuringly and throwing Stefan a dirty look.

He shrugged, and wisely decided to back down.

"At the boarding house this morning, we were talking about reaching out to the Vampire Hunters again," he said instead.

Matt said something in reply, but Bonnie didn't hear him, her eyes on the fingers clenched tightly in her lap. She tried to discreetly level out her unsteady breathing. When Caroline's hand squeezed her again in silent support, she leaned into her friend gratefully.

She came back to the present in time to hear Damon's startling declaration:

"Bonnie can't stay here."

Her eyebrows shot up as she watched everyone else nod in agreement.

"If the heretic attacked you here once, she can attack you here again," Matt said.

"And we can't vervain-paint here because of Caroline," Tyler added, giving Caroline an apologetic look.

Caroline sighed. "We've talked about it, guys," she said impatiently. "Put the damn paint on some of the walls. I'll be fine as long as my room is good."

"You'll be inhaling vervain every day," Stefan retorted. "It'll be in the water, too."

"I can take it," Caroline fired back. The two vampires glared at each other.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Don't take this the wrong way but: You two can go fuck yourselves."

Matt was mid-sip and he spat out his beer, laughing. Tyler guffawed.

Ignoring the shocked, furious gazes of his brother and Caroline, Damon went on with a bright smile. "So that's settled then. Bonnie moves-"

Bonnie's own urge to smile – something she had been fighting against out of loyalty to her friend – completely vanished. "Excuse you? Bonnie's right here and she's staying put, thank you very much," she snapped. Then she softened at the worried look on her friends' faces. "But I might come crash over at Matt's or Tyler's once in a while. I'll need to be in Mystic Falls anyway, to keep an eye on things there."

" Look, BonBon," Damon said impatiently, "no one knows better than me that you kick major magic butt. But that's the thing – you can't fight these things with magic. You're use-" he caught the dangerous flash in her eyes and quick amended, "you're powerless in this situation."

Bonnie was opening her mouth to retort when Caroline said quietly, "I'm the last person to ever say this but: Damon's right." She cringed at Bonnie's look of betrayal but her stance did not waver.

"It's for your own good," Matt added.

"You guys can go hang. I'm not moving out of my flat and that's it."

But Damon kept pushing and the others pushed with him. After what seemed like hours of deliberation, they finally reached a compromise. Some degree of vervain-fortification would be used in the girls' flat – and Bonnie would have some form of protection detail on her. Bonnie was laughing her head off at the latter until Matt reminded her that it was as much for preventing the heretics' from using her in their endgame as it was for her own protection.

"I don't have Expression anymore," she muttered. "They'd just be wasting their time."

"Well, we don't want them to snap your neck when they figure out how useless you are," Damon rasped, clearly pissed off that he didn't get his way.

Bonnie drew in a sharp breath, ready to fling an aneurysm at him. Only Matt's hand, suddenly squeezing her ankle, held her back.

After almost two hours and lots of beers, they wrapped up their plans. She, Damon and Matt were going to go to the morgue the next day to look at the body of the witch that had been murdered while they were in Portland. The other three would reach out to Jeremy Gilbert again, maybe even plan a road trip to his latest hunting ground. The Gilbert devices hadn't been much help. But perhaps the Hunters themselves could be useful.

But before that, Stefan was going to take first Bonnie Watch – something Damon had a lot to insinuate about, his eyes glancing mischievously from his brother to Caroline – and Stefan was going back to the mansion to get some of his stuff then return. Matt was hitching a ride with them and he hung back after the vampire brothers to bend down and give Bonnie a hug that lifted her off her feet.

"Hey, I almost forgot – welcome back."

Bonnie smiled the first real smile she had that morning.

Tyler stayed behind. He had offered to wait with the girls until Stefan came back.

"Seriously, Tyler?" Caroline quipped as he lolled on the settee with a beer. "You couldn't protect Bonnie from _me_."

"You sure know how to make a guy feel special, Care."

She just rolled her eyes and left to her room, for a quick shower and change. That was when Bonnie registered that Caroline was wearing what looked like the previous day's clothes.

 _Mmmm…_ Bonnie speculated, happily. She was glad to have something else to occupy her thoughts for the moment.

She pulled out her phone and rang Jo. It went into voicemail, so Bonnie left a brief message, asking for a callback without giving any specific details.

She tucked it away, looked around the room casually, and was taken aback to realize that Tyler was staring hard at her.

"Ty?" she queried, raising an eyebrow.

He reddened a little. "Hey, Bon. S-sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop or anything but I thought you were calling Liv?"

"Er… I figured Jo might know more, being older and closer to the leader."

He nodded, buying her hastily made-up excuse. He then gave her a rueful smile. "You know, you don't have to keep me company or anything. I'm just a sentry on duty. Plus you'd probably like to be alone right now…"

"Actually, I don't," Bonnie said honestly. "Especially if you can help get me a beer?" She had tucked her legs under her in the chair and was feeling quite cosy.

He nodded, good-naturedly and fetched a can from the fridge.

She took it with a smile and tilted her head, questioningly when he didn't return to the settee but waited, standing in front of her. He shifted his weight from one foot to another.

"Tyler, is something wrong?"

His behavior was puzzling. Bonnie and Tyler had been close friends in elementary school but that was decades ago. Since then, he had always been closer friends with Matt, and Elena – and, later, Caroline until that relationship had ended – than Bonnie. Bonnie had interacted more with Tyler this last year he joined the Academy than all their high school years together. He was as invested in protecting Mystic Falls as Matt was, and she admired that about him. She knew Tyler had reservations about both Salvatores – also like Matt – but he was willing to put his misgivings aside for the common good.

Still, they weren't particularly close and Bonnie wracked her brain now, trying to figure out what this was going to be about.

Tyler finally sat down on the table across from her, and looked down at his hands. "So how was Portland?"

Bonnie stiffened. There hadn't been much briefing on the time in Portland and her botched overtures to the Gemini Council and their Praetor. Bonnie and Damon had been keeping everyone abreast while they were there so they didn't have anything new to add. Which was great because Bonnie wasn't ready for prying questions. Portland, the Gemini and Kai Parker were all rolled into one convoluted ball of hurt in her heart and she wasn't in any frame of mind to start untangling that mess. Despite the nightmarish interruption this morning, she still retained some of the serenity the night had given her and she wasn't ready to let that go.

"I hear the Saltzmans are all settled there with the babies," Tyler continued.

"Uh-huh."

"Jo must have her hands full, right? Damon said something about Liv helping out with the twins. How are they all doing?"

Oh. That.

Relief flushed through Bonnie and she bit back a smile. "Alaric, Jo and the babies all are doing great. Liv was… Liv." She watched his face. "She's staying with them. She looked good, and seemed happy enough, busy with her job and coven business."

He made a face. "She used to complain about the coven all the time. How they were all into early marriages and loads of magical babies to strengthen their power zones. Made it sound very medieval, if you ask me."

Bonnie chugged her can and waited.

"I guess she's probably dating some wizard douche right about now, counting down the days until she walks down the aisle," he added, not prying in the least. No, not at all.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "She asked after you, too, Tyler."

He went bright red. "She did? I mean… Er… Not that I asked or anything…"

"Oh, come on, Tyler!"

He groaned a little, and covered his face with his hands.

Bonnie giggled, amused but also a little touched. Sure Liv had mentioned something about dating someone but Bonnie hadn't needed to know the girl very well to understand that was a transparent front. It was obvious that Liv's feelings for Tyler were still very much there.

Clearly, Tyler also felt the same way.

"Give her a call. You're way too old for this high school crap. You like the girl. She likes you… God knows why."

He laughed at that, his hands falling down. He looked fearful and hopeful at the same time.

Bonnie took another drink. "Don't let the grass grow under your feet, Tyler."

"We kind of parted on really bad terms, Bon. You know… the whole kill-the new leader-kill-the-coven-and-kill-herself stunt that she pulled."

"Oh, is that why you broke up?" Bonnie asked, surprised. Funny that Bonnie hadn't known this. Until now, she had assumed that Liv and Tyler had broken up because they hadn't wanted to try a long-distance relationship after Liv graduated from Whitmore. Of course, like Tyler, Liv wasn't a close friend either. Liv and Tyler were both, what Caroline would call 'second-hand friends' – Tyler was to Matt, what Liv was to Jo where Bonnie was concerned. She hadn't really given much thought to their relationship or why it ended.

"Yeah, sort of." He gave her a furtive look, his face suddenly looking guilty.

Bonnie thought she knew what he was thinking of. "I never really thought about it," she said softly, "but when you compare what she went through with yourself after your mother…"

He scowled. "That's what she said, too. It's not the same thing, Bonnie."

 _Wasn't it?_ Bonnie wondered but she didn't feel like arguing the point. "I don't know what else to tell you, Tyler…" she said, finally. "She's fine. She's got past her issues with K- her brother." That made him give her a sharp look. "They're actually kind of good with each other now. And she's still interested in you. If you're holding back because of something she did a year ago when she was grieving and upset…"

Tyler was staring at Bonnie like if she had grown two heads. "By brother you mean Kai right?"

Bonnie swallowed. "Who else?"

He shook his head. "There's no way Liv would ever be good with Kai. That's crazy talk, Bonnie."

She shrugged. "Well, as good as siblings from the same twin-murdering coven can be? I dunno. Only child here so I don't have any experience with these things…"

"I'd never have imagined Liv would ever get over losing Luke. At least not enough to embrace Kai."

Bonnie looked away from his skeptical face. "Luke would have died anyway, wouldn't he? Either that or he'd have killed Liv which isn't what he wanted. And there's this whole sharing personality thing they say the Merge is about. So K-Kai has a part of him forever. I dunno…" She said again, her voice trailing off.

She swallowed against the lump that had suddenly risen in her throat. "He saved Jo at the wedding. Took a knife in the gut that was meant for her. He saved everyone else again when he got rid of the heretics the first time…"

She glanced at Tyler's face; was it her imagination or was he looking far too perceptively at her? Schooling her features into what she hoped was neutrality, she said softly. "They're not like you and me, these Parkers. They are the walking talking definition of dysfunctional."

Tyler nodded in hearty agreement to that.

"Jo managed to get over her father and her brother both trying to kill her, enough to invite them to her wedding. I guess Liv did the same."

For a few moments, neither of them said anything.

Then Tyler chuckled bitterly. "This is probably crazy but considering the fact that she threw away 'us' because her hatred of Kai was that strong, I guess I'd feel better if she still hated him. Now I feel…" He heaved a sigh. "I… I said some things to Liv. At the wedding. She tried to apologize, asked for another chance and…" He ran his hands down his face. He looked miserable. "And I blew it."

"It's never too late, Tyler," Bonnie said simply.

He gave her a disbelieving look. "Did you hear what I said? She asked me for another chance and I turned her down."

"It's never too late," Bonnie insisted, her voice shaking slightly. "Not if you both care about each other. Don't let your pride get in the way, Ty."

He just shook his head. Then he sighed again. "Thanks for listening, Bon."

"I'll send you my bill."

He chuckled again and got to his feet. "Hey, do you mind if I-"

Bonnie forced a smile, stretching out her arms to shove him a little. " _Please_ go. You need to make a long-distance call and Caroline and I need to have a pillow fight in our underwear."

He had started reaching for his jacket but now, he hesitated. "Er… maybe I should just stay for your protec-"

Bonnie shoved him again and they both laughed.

He hovered at the door. "Guess I'll be seeing you around Mystic Falls soon?"

"Yep. You heard what the others said. I will even be crashing at your place. I need to be on ground full-time to use my SuperWitchy powers to fight crime and save the day. Again."

He gave her another furtive glance, his face twisting with something like admiration and guilt. "Yeah. That. You take care, Bonnie."

She watched him go. Then she waved her hand at the door and the lock turned. For moments, she just let herself dwell in her thoughts, her drink forgotten in her hand. The conversation bothered her more than she liked. She had no idea why. She and _some people_ were nothing like Liv and Tyler. Those two had dated, they had been in love. What she, Bonnie had had with _him_ was…

Nothing.

It was _nothing_. It had meant _nothing_. To her. And maybe even to him.

Right?

Not that it mattered, she told herself firmly, ignoring the way her heart was clenching. Because whatever it had been, it was over. Had never even started.

She forced herself to think about something else, like the strange look on Tyler's face before he left. Now, what was that about? Did he feel sorry for her? Sorry that she had been dragged back into the whole supernatural business that she had strongly hinted to both he and Matt that she had sworn off?

Bonnie shrugged and finished her drink. Who knew? Who cared? She liked Tyler but his opinion of her wasn't something she'd lose sleep over. He'd better get his ass in the game or Liv would probably hook up with some hottie from her coven, or even a mundane from her firm.

Talking of Liv, Bonnie remembered the Grimoires and the message she never got round to writing to the other witch.

Bonnie had just pulled out her phone and opened the text app when Caroline burst into the living room in a storm of blonde curls and silky pyjamas.

"Thank goodness, I thought he would never leave!" She said as she dramatically flung herself on the sofa.

Bonnie eyed her friend's outfit. "PJs at noon?"

"I'm a vampire, remember? This is way past my bedtime."

Bonnie laughed, put the phone aside.

"I can't believe Tyler is still going on about that Parker witch. What's so special about her anyway?"

Bonnie was surprised. "Bit late in the day for the green eyed monster to rear its ugly head."

"Oh _please_ ," Caroline scoffed. "We've been over for years. I just think Tyler could do better. Though that would be hard. I am such a tough act to follow."

Bonnie snorted. The two girls exchanged grins.

"I missed you, Bonnie," Caroline said softly. "Flat wasn't the same with you gone."

"I didn't think you'd spend much time here…" Bonnie said cautiously.

Caroline raised an eyebrow.

"You know… You and Stefan?" When her friend still wasn't forthcoming, Bonnie asked point-blank. "How are you guys doing?"

Caroline shrugged. "It's complicated?" She brooded for about five seconds, then her face turned angry. "I'm sorry about what he said earlier. I don't know what his deal is, these days but he has no business taking our problems out on my BFF and I'll rearrange his face the next time he does."

Bonnie didn't think Stefan's… unfriendliness – because that was what it came down to – had anything to do with his relationship with Caroline. It was directed to her, Bonnie, personally. And it had started around the time that Lily Salvatore had died.

It struck Bonnie suddenly then – because a year of living apart from all this plus her determination to forget all things related to _Him_ had caused her to push it far back in her mind – that Caroline didn't know that Lily was dead. The brothers had wanted it kept a secret. Damon didn't want Elena to know she loved a man that could kill his own mother and Stefan had gone along with his brother as usual. There had also been the Enzo factor – his loyalty to Lily had traits of the sire bond all over again – and just the general need to close what must have been a painful chapter in their lives.

So the brothers had told anyone who cared to know that Lily had been banished back to her prison world. Bonnie herself had believed this for a long time.

To her knowledge, only one other person knew the truth about what really happened to Lily Salvatore – and he held his peace for reasons best known to him.

Reflexively, her mind shied away from that line of thought.

"I'm not going to put up with any crap from him," Caroline was saying.

"He'll be here soon. Think you can handle him?"

Her friend smiled nastily. "I'm putting crowns in the fold-out."

They both sniggered, although Bonnie couldn't help wondering if Stefan would end up using the fold-out at all. More likely, he'd spend most of his 'downtime' in Caroline's bedroom. The moment the thought passed through her head, the obvious innuendo followed and Bonnie mentally gagged. Clearly, she was hanging around Damon a tad too much.

Caroline glanced at her, her eyes flashing. "But enough about me. What about you? How did your trip to Portland go?"

Bonnie fought back a flinch. She loved her friend like a sister, but please no, not now. She didn't want to talk about him. She didn't want to _think_ about him.

She answered cagily. "Haven't you been getting the updates? We're getting some inspector-type witch and no fire power, whatsoever."

Caroline bounced with exasperation. "Who cares about that stuff? I meant how did things go with Kai 'Sexy Powerful Warlock' Parker?"

"Yeah, who cares about getting help to get rid of a pair of un-killable vampire-witches ravaging through our home town?" Bonnie murmured, stalling.

"Argh! You're hopeless!" Caroline declared, and leaned over and sniffed Bonnie's neck.

"Ew! What the hell, Care?" Bonnie yelled as she recoiled. She was a little sensitive in that area at the moment.

Caroline pulled back with a scowl. "Hopeless _and_ sexless. You reek of frustration."

"You are so gross!"

"And _you_ are so horny. How do you stand it? If I had half of that tension bottled up inside, I'd have jumped on the first guy I met. Talking about options, there is one at least very close at hand…"

Bonnie scowled, feeling her throat tighten. "Give me his number, then. We can skip wine and roses and go straight to the hook-up."

Caroline laughed, her eyes dancing. "Well, he's thinking more long term and as for you… Yeah, right." Then she stared when Bonnie didn't say anything. "You're serious, aren't you? Oh Bonnie, you already tried that in Europe. That's not your style."

"What is my style then, Care?" Bonnie asked, swallowing against the lump in her throat. "I pretty much threw myself at him in Portland and he said…" She could barely choke out the word. "No."

Caroline's jaw dropped. "He didn't. The jerk. I'll run all the way there and tear out his heart."

"He figured out what I was trying to do. He called me out on it." Bonnie rubbed her scratchy eyes, and to her horror, saw wetness on her fingers. "Newsflash, Caroline. Your idea sucked."

"Bonnie," Caroline said softly, her voice dripping with compassion.

Bonnie almost resented her for it. She rubbed her eyes angrily. "Fuck if I care about Kai Parker."

Caroline said nothing.

"I don't," Bonnie muttered. "I'm just… tired. I've barely been home for a day and someone's already tried to kill me. I thought I was done with all this crap after Elena left. But now I'm right back in the middle of things."

"Bonnie, you don't have to do this. You _never_ had to do this. I told you from the start. You could have always told Damon and Stefan no. I would have backed you up."

"I have to," Bonnie said, rubbing her eyes again. "I'm not doing this for…" _you, any of you_. But she didn't say that.

"Can we just not talk about any of this stuff right now?" Because everything all led back to the Gemini and Kai Parker and she just needed a break from the man for _a few frigging hours!_ Was that too much to ask for? "We've got this big-ass TV and a Netflix account we never use. What's hot, these days? What do normal people watch?"

Caroline gave her a look that clearly said, ' _this is not over, Bonnie'_ but wisely, decided to play along. "Nothing beats The Fixer. I'm going to get some popcorn."

* * *

 _April 2013_

Kai Parker had dropped a bombshell on Bonnie the day she brought him back from 1903 and he told her what really happened on her birthday.

She was still reeling from the aftershocks.

She wasn't a coward, but it had taken her a whole day to call Jeremy Gilbert and have a much-needed conversation with the once love-of-her-life. And after that, it had taken her almost as long to call Damon Salvatore and ask to speak to him.

Then it took Damon some time to fit her into his busy schedule. Bonnie was the college student who was essentially re-doing her entire year and had taken on extra load so that she could still graduate sometime in the near future. He was the wealthy and jobless vampire.

But it was _Bonnie_ who ended up working around her schedule to fit his.

It was that last thought that was boiling in her head as she followed Damon into the library of the boarding house.

Lucky for him, she couldn't get angrier than she already was.

"So this needs to be fast. The Forbes Humanity Rehabilitation Project hit a bit of a snag and I need to get back to the motel pronto-"

"I left you a message before I went to 1903. Did you get it?"

Something in her voice finally clued him in. He had been oblivious so far but now he stopped in his tracks and turned to really look at her.

When his eyebrows came up, she almost smiled.

"What's up, Bonnie?" He asked, warily.

"Did. you. get. my. message?"

He hesitated, his eyes calculating. Then he shrugged. "I did. When I was already at the motel, elbows deep in fixing _your best friend_ , by the way."

"If you couldn't make it, you could have sent Elena to the boarding house. You could have told her that I might need back up when I came back with Kai. _If_ I came back at all. If he didn't just kill me the moment I showed up and left my body in Winter 1903."

"You know why I didn't want Elena involved in this," he hissed.

"You didn't have to tell her about the Cure," Bonnie hissed back. "You could have just asked her to come help _me._ "

"What's going on with you? Forget the fact that you sneaked around and did this after I had _begged you_ …" His eyes boggled with frustration. "You knew we had this thing to deal with. I told you to wait until we got Stefan and Bubblegum sorted out, and then you and I could talk this over properly, find a middle ground that would make _everybody_ happy but nooooo, you just had to rush over and rescue Kai – and _only_ Kai – right that very moment. How is President Prick, by the way?"

"He'll live. So will I. Even though I could have used some of your blood when I got back. Awkward that… since you weren't there."

He had the grace to look a bit shamefaced. "Stefan really needed me at the motel. Barbie was…"

"She had Stefan, Elena, and Jo, and Alaric. Just how many people do you need to babysit one three-year-old vampire on vervain?" She raised her hand to cut off the next stream of excuses. "Save it. I knew you'd be pissed that I wasn't getting Lily's creepy heretic family. But I figured you'd still have my back when it mattered. Guess I was wrong, wasn't I?"

He hesitated again, clearly struggling with the truth – typical Damon – then he smiled charmingly. "Come on, BonBon. You know me better than that."

"You're right," she said heavily. "I do. _Motus_!"

The poker went flying from the fireplace and whacked him across his stomach, sending him flying across the room.

"What the hell, Bonnie?" he roared.

"I called Jeremy. We had a long talk. About my fucking birthday!"

He froze in the process of getting to his feet. A series of emotions, starting with realization and ending with a mix of guilt and defiance passed over his face. Bonnie's heart fell.

Up until then, she hadn't realized that a part of her had badly wanted Damon to have some stupid excuse for this. He forgot. He thought it wasn't important. Anything but the truth that was clear on his face:

He had deliberately, calculatingly manipulated her.

She picked up the poker with her mind and sent it – pointy end first – into his ribs.

He screamed. _"Bonnie!"_

"You piece of shit."

He yanked out the poker. "Bonnie…"

"You lied to me!"

"I didn't lie! I did leave that message for you!"

"You. left. a. message? _That_ is how you 'saved' me? You couldn't even watch their backs during the spell. You left Kai and Jeremy defenseless and Liv attacked them. They could have both died and I would have killed myself for nothing!"

"OK. Hold up a sec, BonBon," he gasped, getting to his feet slowly. "Let me ask one thing… Did you just randomly have this conversation with Jeremy? Or did someone spit poison in your ear?"

"Kai told me the truth. Imagine how it felt like hearing it from _him_? That I had almost killed the man who saved my life?"

Damon laughed nastily. "Can't you see what he's doing here, Bonnie? He's manipulating you. Manipulating us. Trying to turn us against each other. He tried to do the same thing in the Prison World, remember?"

"This is not about Kai!" Bonnie shouted. "This is about you and me! You're supposed to be _my_ friend and you lied to me and you were going to let me do something that I would have regretted for the rest of my life!"

"Hey! Back up a sec! I never asked you to kill him, alright? I told you. 'Here's your chance to get some payback.' How you chose to interpret that, was entirely up to you–"

Bonnie sent a chair flying into his face, that he barely dodged.

"You gave me, the _fucking knife!_ "

"Who the fuck cares, Bonnie? He did one good thing! _One!_ That didn't erase everything that he had done before. You told me – you _showed_ me how he tortured you. I try to help you get even and now I'm the bad guy?"

She laughed, and it was filled with bitterness and mockery. "You lie so much, it's no wonder you start believing your own bullshit."

His eyes narrowed. "Watch it, Witchy. I get it that you're upset but don't you-"

She threw another hex at him, flinging him into a table.

He yelled, and was silent.

"Damon…?" she asked, hesitantly, hating that as angry as she was, she still cared.

He tried to drag himself up. "Bonnie… Wooden table… Bad idea…"

She came closer. "Damon, are you-"

He jumped to his feet, and rushed across the room in a bolt of speed and rage and before she could blink, she was shoved back to the wall, and his hands were around her neck.

"Now, BonBon, you're going to have to get a _grip_."

His eyes were bloodshot and veined. He was furious.

Good.

So was she.

She screwed her eyes almost shut and he went flying back across the room. She pinned him there with her mind and fried his brains.

His shouts could probably be heard from the street.

"What's going on?"

Elena stood at the doorway, staring at the two, in shock.

* * *

 _June 2014_

After the day Bonnie had had, her dreams should have been filled with violence, memories of the times she had encountered the heretics – 1903, Jo's wedding, even this morning.

Instead she had one of her old dreams. Herself, lying on her side on a soft bed, watching the sun climb up through a distant window, with a warm, strong presence at her back, long limbs wrapped around her tight enough to crush. But she hadn't felt smothered, she had felt cocooned, protected, in a way that she hadn't felt in a long time.

When she woke up, her consciousness pulling out of the dream reluctantly, she almost started telling herself that it was just a dream, and the person holding her might have been anyone – Jeremy, one of those randoms from Europe, heck even Brad Pitt.

But as she pulled herself into a sitting position, and stared out at the still pitch-black night through her magically mended window, she knew she couldn't keep up the lie. It had been Kai. And what had first been a dream had ended up being a premonition.

For the first time in a year, Bonnie let herself willingly remember something from that night. How it had felt to fall asleep with him alongside her, spooning her. She had felt safe, shielded from the world, as if nothing bad could ever happen to her again.

It had been a strong enough feeling that she had let him change her mind a few hours later. Strong enough that she had agreed to try…

The memories of what came after, days later, were easier, fresher to recall. Probably because she had played them over in her head so often that she could practically repeat word for word what they had said to each other.

" _You haven't changed. Not really. You're still the same vindictive, vengeful, cold-blooded snake you've always been."_

" _So we're a perfect pair, aren't we? Because you're still the same judgmental, self-righteous hypocrite you've always been."_

Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, she went to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she was at her desk, the Grimoires she had abruptly abandoned that morning waiting for her. She had got distracted when she went from looking for vampire weaknesses to researching the Cure, but she would try to be a bit more organized. She glanced at the clock at the table. It was only a few minutes past three in the morning. The best time to study, in her experience. And hopefully, if she didn't get an unexpected visit from a heretic, she'd actually get some work done. Anything to keep her mind focused, away from dangerous thoughts and memories that only led to unhappiness and regret.

An hour later, Bonnie was stretching like a cat, hands over her head and her chair tipping back. There were three open volumes and a large loose leaf suspended in front of her; and she had pulled out two incantations, the words hovering in the still air, pressing lightly against her skin. Her own personal Grimoire was also open in front of her, its pages flickering as magic scribbled on its paper. Her mind was working rapidly on an idea that had grabbed hold of her half-way through and had started taking shape.

She dropped her hands slowly to the table, and her eyes caught the tattoo on her wrist.

It was almost alarming how easily she was getting used to it. How little it bothered her now.

She whispered into the air, and the books fell gracefully back to the table. The words of the spell hovered a moment longer, then sank into her Grimoire.

She needed a break. Some tea, too. She pushed back her chair and left for the kitchen.

She was walking across the dimly lit living area to the kitchen, when a soft voice reached out through the darkness.

"Bonnie," Stefan Salvatore said.

Bonnie bit back a shriek, spinning around to see him sitting up on the fold out. He had apparently just put on his smartphone so she could see his face, eerily lit up by its glow.

 _For a fraction of a heartbeat, it was someone else's face she saw; someone who smiled gleefully as he opened her father's neck, while she screamed futilely into the void…_

"Sorry," he said quietly. "I knew you didn't see me and I didn't want to startle you."

Stefan had turned up an hour before Bonnie had retired for the night. Or – if she were to be honest – his appearance had sent her into her room.

She laughed awkwardly now, her heart still racing a bit. "Better luck next time. I forgot you were here." She moved quickly to the bar. "I'm making some tea. Want some?"

"Sure. Thanks."

Even if she had remembered, she would probably have expected to find the fold-out empty and Stefan shacking up in Caroline's room. So this was a double surprise of sorts.

Everyone's love life was a sorry mess these days, Bonnie thought as she brought out two mugs.

Moments later, she placed a steaming mug before Stefan.

"Thanks," he said quietly. "Having problems sleeping in this. For some odd reason, I keep finding crowns in it."

"That's really odd," Bonnie murmured as she sipped her tea. Avoiding his suspicious gaze, her eyes landed on the table lamp by the fold-out that was switched on, then the journal that lay beside it.

"That reminds me of Elena," she said impulsively.

For a moment, he just stared at her, his face frozen. Then he followed her eyes to the book by his side, and his body relaxed. "Yeah, we had that in common. She and I. Have, I mean." He cleared his throat.

Yep, Bonnie thought. Sorry mess all around.

She was about to walk away. She and Stefan didn't have the same kind of relationship these days that they had many years ago, and she wasn't in the least inclined to sit and make small talk. But something struck her and she lowered herself into the armchair.

"Have you heard from Elena lately? The last email we exchanged was just before finals started. Nothing serious, just wishing Care and I good luck. She was getting ready for her internship in Bulgaria."

"We talked a few weeks ago. She's still there."

"So she's not in a warzone?"

"If she was, she probably wasn't allowed to say."

Bonnie felt slightly envious. She couldn't remember the last time she spoke to Elena. Time zones and school made it hard. Caroline was even worse – not being a long-distance relationship person naturally. Yet Stefan had somehow managed a phone call to his ex.

By an association of ideas, she wondered how Caroline felt about that. Was it any wonder their relationship was so rocky?

"I guess so. I remember how crazy Care and I thought she was. Sneaking out time during our holiday to do this online language program. We didn't realize what she was planning back then." She shook her head ruefully.

Stefan was silent for a long time. "That's the thing about her, wasn't it? Once she made up her mind, she put everything she had into her decision. Stubborn to a fault."

"Strong-willed," Bonnie corrected. "And ballsy, too. Staying on in Europe, signing up for part-time medical school, part-time army medic internship," Bonnie chuckled, even as her eyes became slightly misty. "This really sounds strange, but I sometimes feel that Elena is stronger as a human than she ever was as a vampire."

"Well, she spent most of her time as a vampire being sire-bonded to Damon so what did you expect?" Stefan said.

The cold bitterness in his voice alarmed her, almost as much as the sudden hardness in his face.

"Stefan…" she said cautiously.

His gaze, which had been fixed at some unknown point over her shoulder, sharpened on her. "That's all water under the bridge now. Did you hear back from Liv Parker about the heretic's name?"

The subject had changed so abruptly that Bonnie had to take a moment to recover from the mental whiplash.

"I spoke to Jo, actually," she finally said. The older sister had eventually returned her call. "The name didn't ring any bells, but of course, we're talking at least three generations ago. She promised to dig into it and let us know. I hope she finds something. I've done a lot of research; and it looks like information about the heretics and Prison Worlds are classified even amongst the Gemini."

"All the more reason why you should have saved time and asked the coven leader directly."

"I know what I'm doing, Stefan," she said tersely.

"Jeremy and the Hunters are tied up in Brooklyn with all this vampire cult business. No help from them soon. That leaves your research…" He looked skeptical. "Caroline said you've been trying to figure out a way to fight the heretics on your own? Any progress?"

Bonnie eyed him warily. "I have some ideas."

"We'll need something more concrete than that soon," he said warningly. "They're developing a resistance to vervain. They've started coming out more often now. We were able to hold one off today, but who knows where next they'll strike? Or if you'll be so lucky if they come after you again? You need to find out why they want your Ex-"

"Stefan." Slowly, deliberately, Bonnie placed her mug on the center table. The action took supreme self-control and stopped her from doing something rash - like an aneurysm or a _Phaesmotus Incendia_. "Back off."

He paused mid-sentence, the look on his face so comical that she would have burst out laughing if she wasn't so ticked off.

"I was just…"

"You know I thought it was in my head. But everyone else has picked up on it, too. So just spit it out."

"Spit out what?" he asked slowly, and the careful way he repeated his words reminded her, for the first time in a long time, that inside the body of the eternal teenager, was actually a very old-fashioned man.

"The problem you obviously have with me."

He stared for a few moments. Then he bowed his head. "You're mistaken, Bonnie. And I'm sorry if I gave you that impression."

"Oh come on, Stefan!"

"I mean it, Bonnie. I'm really sorry that I've made you th-"

"You want me to say it?"

"Bonnie-" He still wasn't looking at her and now his voice was half-pleading, half-warning. "Don't-"

"Lily."

He looked up then. His eyes were round with shock. "Lily?"

She let out an exasperated breath. "I'm sorry you lost your mom but it wasn't my fault she died."

Stefan's mouth twisted bitterly. "You're the reason why Damon killed her. And if it wasn't him, it would have been your Kai Parker."

And there it was – the elephant in the room.

Blood rose up in her face. "He's not my-" she started sharply, then took a deep breath. "I was the last straw. Lily was out of control. Don't transfer blame on me."

"I wasn't blaming you. I was simply stating a fact."

"A fact? You want to talk facts? The fact is that you have some nerve getting upset over me and your _mother_ , Stefan Salvatore. _Have you forgotten what you did to mine?_ " She snarled.

He met her gaze head on. "Never."

It was the first time they had ever spoken about this, she and Stefan. And Bonnie braced herself for it – the rote defense; the speech about how it had been due to Elijah's ultimatum; how anyway it had been Damon, not him, that had snapped Abby's neck; Stefan downplaying his role in it as he issued a well-articulated apology that meant absolutely nothing.

But none of that happened. He was silent as he looked at her, his face hiding nothing. The harshness in his gaze, the self-directed condemnation in it calmed her more than anything he could have said.

Bonnie nodded grimly. "Good."

The tension that had risen between them these past few minutes did not abate though, just lingered on a plateau. One fitful conversation would not be enough to unpack all the years of unaired bitterness between them – starting from that fateful night where Bonnie had thought this man's immortal life valuable enough to risk herself for his freedom.

That fateful night that Sheila Bennett had died.

Stefan sighed, breaking through her thoughts. "Lily was out of control, yes. But Damon could have been a bit more patient. I thought a few months in the dungeon… Maybe a year or so. But Kai Parker gave us no choice."

"That's not my fault."

"I'm not saying it is," he said tiredly. "This isn't even… This has nothing to do with…" He shook his head then, laughing hollowly. "I just wish… I wish things had turned out differently. I thought my mother had been dead for over a century. And you want to know the truth? She should have stayed dead." He sighed. "I wish you hadn't brought her back."

His words were like a slap across her face.

But he wasn't even aware of the impact they had on Bonnie; as he went on, "But she came back because I had switched off my humanity. And after Lily, the heretics followed. So if anyone is to blame for all this, it's me. If you've ever wondered why I went along with Damon, kept the truth of her death from Caroline and everyone else… That's why."

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Stefan's gaze had turned inwards, his mind wallowing in his dark thoughts. While Bonnie's was…

Goosebumps spread all over her arms, and for the first time since she woke up, she felt the night chill.

Choosing to risk everything to save Stefan and losing her grandmother in the bargain, might have been Bonnie's first mistake as a player in this unending supernatural battlefield her lineage had drawn her into. But it hadn't been the last. Nor had it been the last time that her own flesh and blood had paid the price for her bad judgment. It was a thought that had managed to haunt her for years without providing any real retrospection.

Until she had been forced to spend half of a year in an empty planet with only the ghosts of her past mistakes for company.

"I just need to know we're on the same page," she said finally, quietly, choking back on the emotions that hovered just beneath the surface. "I was very clear when I came back. I'm not going to be a part of this if we're going to repeat the same mistakes. Hidden agendas. Secrets. Back deals. Betrayals. I'm not sticking my neck out if I can't trust you to have my back when it counts."

His eyes on her were steady. "You can. You will."

She nodded and stood up. That was as good as she was going to get.

"Good night, Stefan." She picked up her mug.

His quiet answer followed her out of the room. The last thing she saw was the light of his phone as he turned it on. As before, the glow lit up his face, emphasizing harsh lines of grief.

As she walked to her room, Bonnie found herself assailed with somber thoughts: Being abandoned and forgotten had been the worst chapter in her already crappy life, yes but… Perhaps if it hadn't happened to her, if she hadn't been forced to take that time out from life and reflect on the decisions that had led her there in the first place… And more than that, if she hadn't been made to reject those first instincts she had on her return – instincts to rationalize what she told herself were treacherous feelings towards her friends, and to re-direct her anger at anyone but them…

Perhaps, she'd still be making those same bad decisions now.

The conversation with Stefan had drained her in more ways than one, but it had also ignited something inside her. Ignoring her bed, she sat her butt on that chair and vowed she won't get up until she found a way to fix this mess, and then finally, _finally_ turn her back on these people once and for all. She pushed herself for a good three hours, and there was light in the sky by the time she finally got up from her desk. But when she did, it was with some semblance of satisfaction.

Before she closed her eyes though, she glanced at her phone out of habit and was pleasantly surprised to see a new message from one Elena Gilbert waiting for her.

It wasn't long, and most of it was filled with mentions of places and people and medical stuff that went over Bonnie's head. But it filled her with warmth, and she carried it into a long and thankfully, dreamless sleep.

* * *

 _April 2013_

Bonnie never quite found out what brought Elena to the boarding house that afternoon, in the middle of her discussion with Damon about appropriate ways to celebrate birthdays, the nature of friendships and the ethics of attempting to murder your rescuer.

"Damon? Bonnie?"

Curse Damon and his luck. If Elena hadn't walked in then, Bonnie would probably have aneurysmed him until he died. And not regretted it one little bit.

Instead she lifted the pain spell, keeping him still frozen, and turned on Elena.

"You… Why didn't _you_ tell me?" Bonnie asked, her eyes wild, her voice almost hoarse with fury.

"Tell you what?"

"About Kai," Damon groaned, the aftershocks clearly still ringing through his head. "She found out he did you a little favour and helped on her birthday. That's what's got her panties all in a twist." His voice turned mean. "Is that what this is about? The little crush you had on him before? You know BonBon, you really need to get f–"

She silenced him with an angry hex. His mouth kept moving for a few moments before he realized no sound came out. His eyes boggled comically.

Elena stared at him, then Bonnie. "Bonnie…"

"Answer me, Elena. Why. Didn't. _You_. Tell. Me?" And Bonnie's fingers clenched into a fist.

Elena gasped, clutched at her throat. "Bonnie," she managed.

Damon shook frantically where he was, struggling against the magical hold, his eyes murderous.

For a moment, Bonnie felt like if she was standing outside herself watching this happen. A part of her was telling her to stop, that she was going too far, that these were her friends.

Another part was whispering, " _They deserve worse."_

"I… didn't… know…" Elena managed to gasp.

Bonnie loosened her grip on her friend, stared at her in shock. "How _couldn't_ you have known? You were there! It was _your_ idea. Jeremy said so. _Kai_ said so."

Elena coughed, her voice now hoarse. "I meant I didn't know _that Damon didn't tell you_. I thought you already knew. I thought you knew and it didn't matter!"

Bonnie staggered back and her magic slipped – her grip on both vampires falling away.

Damon was on her in a flash, his fangs out and Bonnie was just standing there, too slow to react when a blur flew between them.

Elena.

"Damon, no."

He came to a stop inches before her, close enough that he had to stretch out his arms to brace himself from slamming into his girlfriend.

Elena stood her ground, her body rigid and immovable in front of Bonnie, her hands clenched into fists and slightly raised.

Damon sounded absolutely furious, staring at Bonnie over Elena's shoulders, with mad eyes. "The little witch needs to learn-"

"Damon, stand down!" Elena shouted.

His eyes went from Bonnie to his girlfriend in shock. "She choked you and do you know what she did to me before?"

"You're not touching _Bonnie_!"

The two vampires stared each other down for a long moment. In her heels, Elena was tall enough to look Damon right in the face.

Then he backed up, his hands out and a nasty smile on his face.

Elena took a deep breath, her body relaxing marginally. "You _should_ have told Bonnie. I thought you already did. I would never have…" She turned to Bonnie. "I didn't know what you both planned for Kai until we were leaving 1903. You remember that, don't you? When we were leaving, I asked you where he was. That's when you told me you were leaving him behind."

Bonnie was still reeling, but she managed to say this much. "How could you think I would do something like that if I knew what he did for me?"

 _Stabbed him. Left him to die. Left him to be fed on by those… things._

She hadn't known about the heretics, she told herself now, desperately. She hadn't known she'd be leaving him to _that._

" _But weren't you happy when you knew?"_ a little voice whispered inside her head.

"He hurt you, Bonnie. It doesn't matter if he saved your life. He hurt you _first_."

 _So has Damon! And Stefan! And you, too, Elena!_ _You've all hurt me, more times than I can even remember._

 _And do you know the worst thing you ever did to me?_

But the words only stayed in her head and all she could whisper was, "Of course, it matters, Elena."

"Why?" Damon snapped. "He didn't exactly waltz in here eager-Beaver to save you. We had to pay him first."

Bonnie gasped, the laughter choking her. "By delivering a letter to his sister? That was your deal with the devil? That was the great price you paid for my life?" _I've given up my freedom, my magic, my … Grams, my life for you all!_

Elena shook her head. "Bonnie, Damon told me what Kai put you through. I didn't know about what you planned for him in 1903, and I won't have let you do it without knowing everything first. But … you needed to do it. You said it yourself: you needed to close that chapter in your life."

 _The worst chapter in my life. Where I was abandoned and forgotten, living day after day of emptiness while the rest of you went on with your lives._

 _It was the worst thing that ever happened to me and in the end, a sociopath that I had killed twice did more to save me than you._

"Must be nice," Bonnie said through frozen lips. "To be so used to people throwing their lives away for you that you think it's something that should _ever_ be taken for granted."

Elena recoiled like if she had been slapped.

Damon growled. "Bonnie," he said warningly.

For a moment the three of them stared at each other, the air thick with unspoken grievances, going back further than the present discussion.

"I didn't deserve that," Elena said finally, her voice quiet.

Bonnie didn't answer.

After another long moment, Elena let out a shaky breath. "And neither does Damon. I get that you are upset that he didn't tell you everything. But he was only trying to h-"

"He wasn't!" Bonnie shouted, and she winced at the sob that burst out from her. "It was never about helping me! It was about getting his mother back. That was always what all this was about."

Elena turned to stare at Damon, and he tried to look casual and outraged but it was too late.

But still she asked… redundantly. "Damon, is this true?" As if she didn't glimpse the guilty wince on his face.

As if, after four years, anyone could still have illusions about whom Damon Salvatore was.

"The witch's gone cuckoo. Five months of isolation has finally stolen all her marbles," Damon sneered.

 _I'll go if you go._

The words were haunting Bonnie now with a dark epiphany.

"Kai was never going to help you without me coming along," Bonnie said, her voice shaking with the dejection. "You didn't just need my blood for the Ascendant. You needed _me_ to get him to help you. This whole plan to 'give me closure'? To 'answer all my prayers'?" Her fingers came up and both vampires tensed. But she only curved them mockingly into air quotes. "It was just a ruse to get me to do what you wanted. You used me to use Kai. _You used me_ , Damon."

His face shook, something like contrition wavering through the sullenness. "Maybe I was trying to do both? Get my mother out _and_ help you? Ever thought of that?"

She covered her face with her hands and laughed into them, hollowly. "Do you know the horrible thing about knowing someone as well as I got to know you in the Prison World? It's that at the end of it all, I don't even have the luxury of being outraged. I can't even be surprised because you lived down to your worst nature."

"Watch it, Bonnie-"

"Since when have you _ever_ tried to do anything for anyone that you weren't getting something out of as well?" Bonnie snapped.

Elena said quietly, "That's not fair, Bonnie. Damon did try to rescue you. It just never quite …"

"It just never quite worked out," Bonnie finished bitterly.

All three fell silent after that. The tension in the air was unbearable, choking with resentment, guilt, and regret.

Bonnie took a deep, shaky breath and flung her head back. "I want the truth now. All of it."

"Didn't Wonder Wizard give you all the gritty details?" Damon asked sullenly. "How he pulled you from the brink of death with his bloody, broken hands? I don't suppose he mentioned how I saved his life at the end of it all?"

"Jeremy told me that."

"Score one for me, then," he said sourly.

Bonnie shook her head, genuinely confused. "Make me understand why you did this, Damon. You knew he saved me. You knew he risked his life to do so. You knew he was changing. But you deliberately kept this from me even when you were trying to get me to see him. _You_ came up with the idea to trap him. Why? Why would you do that? To him or to anyone?"

Damon's face turned ugly. "Get your head on straight, witch. He did _one_ good thing. Doesn't erase all the asshole things he did in the past. Kai and I are not buddies. I don't owe him a damn thing."

Elena was staring at him, the expression on her face unreadable. He glared at her, too. "I don't. And neither do you, Bonnie, if you know what's good for you."

"This is not about Kai," Bonnie said tiredly for the second time. "It's about…" _you and me. The friendship I thought we had formed in 1994._

 _Kai saved my life. If you were my friend, that should have meant something. My Life should have counted for something, to you, as My Friend._

But that friendship apparently only existed in 1994. Now, she was back in the real world. Where Damon was Damon Salvatore, who got what he wanted regardless of who got hurt in the process. And Bonnie was…

Still Bonnie Bennett.

The best friend. The loyal companion. Their own personal Witch Friday. Good ol' dependable Bonnie who could be counted on to put everyone before herself and not expect them to do the same for her.

 _Except for one person, though…_

But she pushed the thought away.

"I said I wanted the truth," she reminded them tiredly. "Not about Kai and my birthday. I already know that. I want to know why Lily Salvatore was in a prison world."

Elena looked guilty, and Damon snorted. "A bit too late to start asking, isn't it?" He sneered.

Bonnie nodded sadly. "Yeah, I know. I was all caught up with wanting to gut Kai that I didn't even think to ask before. Which was exactly what you wanted, wasn't it?"

Of all things he could have done, smiling was the worst. Bonnie felt sick looking at him. She glanced at Elena's face, and was taken aback to see the same disgust she felt reflected in her friend's gaze.

"So tell me," Bonnie said in a voice that was low with disappointment and anger – most, if not all of it, for herself. "What kind of monster did I unleash into the world?"

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _Ranger, Wyoming._

"Malachai Parker is a monster. Only a fool will take him at his word."

Five pairs of eyes watched Patrice warily as he pushed his beer away.

The Drunken Lady was a rundown old hangout, more bar than diner. It was less than half empty, a handful of patrons, mostly locals, littered around the darkly lit space. A dolorous melody droned out of the jukebox, dulling most of the conversation.

The party of six eyed each other cautiously across the corner table as they sipped stale beer and talked terms.

When the wolves had finished their spiel, Patrice Lang glanced at the other pair of witches suspiciously. Jude hadn't made it, the explanation for his absence shady. Now Joeb and Hannah Hunter were giving each other cautious looks that meant no good. And if the knowing smile on Rudolph's face meant anything, the wolves saw it, too.

Patrice glared at all of them.

"We grovel back tomorrow and I bet you he'll murder us before we've even got up from our bellies."

"You are being unreasonable, old man," the wolf replied. "I manage my clan's treaty with your coven because I studied the Gemini for years. The terms are fair. Your old leaders wouldn't have been so generous."

Hannah Hunter wrung her hands nervously. "Joshua certainly wouldn't have. And we left with him to exile. He returned to the coven a year ago, pledged allegiance. He publicly endorses Malachai…"

"Publicly," Patrice said meaningfully.

Hannah shifted, and gave her husband a glance. Joeb said nothing, his dark face as unreadable as ever.

Rudolph raised an eyebrow. "Something you care to share with the rest of us?"

Patrice opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment someone walking along the aisle bumped heavily into their table. Patrice sat closest to the aisle, and he got the brunt of the clumsy fool's weight on his shoulder. He shoved the man back, and the six at the table glared in thinly-disguised distaste as the drunken biker-clad man righted himself, grunted an apology, then shuffled away.

The small encounter had brought the eyes of some of the patrons and the barkeep to them, so they waited for some time before speaking again.

"You were saying?" Rudolph prompted, after a careful glance around. "About Joshua Parker?"

"All I'm saying is you shouldn't be too sure about his approval of his son. He took that seat on the Council to keep a close eye on the maniac, keep this coven as safe as possible with _that_ in charge. But he's not on Malachi's side."

Joeb coughed. Hannah looked panicked. "Patrice…"

Patrice glared at them. "I know to keep my mouth shut, you pair of fools. But I know what Joshua planned on the night of his daughter's wedding. I'm not going to sit here and let these wolves tell me my own coven's business."

The Rudolph men said nothing, just kept staring at him with glinting eyes.

Patrice had more to say but Hannah cut in quickly. "We are so isolated up in the mountains here. It takes a while for news to reach us. You said the other witches have returned?"

The wolf nodded. "Most of them. I hear there's a family off the continent that the Whispering Court are still searching for. But word on the street is that the majority of the witches in exile took your leader's offer. They are gathering in Portland as we speak."

"Why is Malachai sending wolves and fairies as emissaries to witches?" Patrice asked belligerently. "They could have sent a Councilman, an Elder, heck even some Envoy who would have done this faster, tracked us down better, treated us with respect."

After another quick glance at her silent husband, Hannah nodded in agreement. "It is somewhat of an insult. No offence," she said hastily as the two silent wolves growled softly.

Rudolph merely raised an eyebrow. "When you see your leader, ask him. We are all allies these days. Maybe he trusts his allies more than he trusts the other witches in his coven."

Once more Hannah and Joeb exchanged glances.

"As isolated as you are, surely you heard of the deaths of some of your own."

Despite himself, a shiver of apprehension ran up Patrice's spine.

"Until last year, my pack had never even heard of the word 'heretic'. Your dirty Gemini secrets are out for the rest of us to wonder at." Rudolph gave them a feral grin. "And with witches being targeted... My people have a saying about the lone wolf who wanders away from his pack."

"Two dead witches is hardly a crisis," Patrice muttered, his gruff voice masking his own misgivings. "Those monsters haven't ventured out of the South since they re-appeared. Gabriel and Victor were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Hannah and Joeb gave him sharp glances that he didn't register.

He had heard, of course, of the deaths of the Briggs. They all had, the witches in exile. They were scattered across the continent, but they still managed to stay in contact in a make-shift Circle of sorts. The death of the mild-mannered couple had been a shock to Patrice. Despite his private thoughts about their lifestyle, and a little begrudging towards O'Sullivan becoming Western Chief Envoy, Patrice had liked both men well enough. They had all advanced to Envoys at the same time as young wizards. With the Stewart sisters, they had been part of the group that served alongside Joshua and Martha Parker before Joshua's Ascension to Praetor and they had continued to work together for decades after, and even beyond the usurpation.

Their murders had hit Judith hard, he remembered, and now some of the things she had said before she left ran through his head.

"Two witches?" one of the two silent wolves had spoken up. He turned to his leader with a question on his face. "I thought there were three."

It was then that Patrice noticed the looks his fellow witches were shooting at him. Looks of pity and sorrow.

Alarm bells rang through his head. "What?" he spat out.

Hannah held his hand gently. But it was Joeb that spoke. "Judith is dead, Patrice. She was murdered in Virginia by the same heretics that killed Gabriel and Victor."

He slumped back in his seat, shock like a tidal wave hitting him so hard that the wind and the spirit were completely knocked out of him.

"You were up in the mountains then. We got a call from the Sheriff's department from the town where she died."

The message on his phone. He had never got round to returning the call.

"We're taking the deal, Patrice," Joeb continued. "The wolves have it right. This is not the time to stand apart from the coven. Hannah and I are returning to Portland tomorrow. Jude already left. We decided days ago, but we wanted to be here with you when the wolves spoke to you. Give you a chance to hear them out for yourselves."

Patrice swallowed against the harsh lump in his throat. Judith. Dead.

"Malachai Parker is a mad man," he said dully through the roar of noise in his head. "You're running from monsters to dragons."

"That's not what we've been hearing from those back at home. Truth is, we've been thinking of doing this for a while now, long before the heretics turned up. Away from the coven, witches are always easy prey to vampires who would use us. And... Malachai sorted out the Ghiaccis, the Lovegoods. Even Joshua couldn't stand up to them. I think we may have been wrong about him. Hannah does, too."

"Joshua said-"

Joeb shook his head. "I know what Joshua has been saying. Or rather, what we've been _told_ he's been saying. But Joshua's on the inside, safe and sound in the heart of the coven while the rest of us are straggling out on our own here. Hannah and I, we've lived a pretty good life. We'd like a pretty good death as well."

Patrice watched as his friends stretched out their hands to each other. Hannah pulled out her knife, and nicked her husband's palm; then he did the same to her. The Rudolph leader pulled out two sealed scrolls from his jacket and placed them into the bloodied palms.

The sight of the red two-faced seal of Castor and Pollux sent an unexpected pang through Patrice's heart.

"Compliments of the Gemini Praetor," Thomas Rudolph said gravely.

The Hunters grasped the scrolls and the seal vanished in a flash of blood-red smoke.

"You have twenty-four hours to present yourself before the Council," Rudolph said, in the same formal tones.

"Not a problem," Joeb said. He glanced at Patrice.

He looked guilty, Patrice thought wrathfully, his shock fast receding into temper. He and his wife. As well they should.

"Patrice…"

"You're fools," Patrice hissed. He stood up, pushing the table with enough force that it slammed into the wolves.

They growled, eyes glowing.

A few patrons looked their way. Hannah and Joeb looked around anxiously, but Patrice and the wolves ignored them.

"If you turn down this offer, you're fair game to everyone out there. The heretics. Even us," Rudolph snarled. The genial façade had gone. Now the man that stared up at Patrice was all pointed teeth and canine eyes. All wolf.

For one fleeting moment, Patrice almost liked him.

"Is that a threat?"

The three wolves smiled, fangs peeking through their lips.

Patrice leaned forward. "You're messenger boys, aren't you? Well, here's message from me to Malachai:

"Fuck you."

The wolves rumbled. Even the Hunters looked scandalized.

"Patrice," Hannah said warningly.

But he wasn't done. "Tell him I helped his father put him away twenty years ago and I am prepared to do so again if he tries to come after me. I see any of your faces again and I'll skin you and hang you on my wall. You too, Hunter. Hannah."

The wolves were rising, their faces twisting. Hannah and Joeb held hands frantically and he could feel their magic spiking, the edge of the shield they were raising.

 _Fools and cowards_ , he thought with one last contemptuous look at them, and with a wave of cloaking magic, he marched out of the diner.

His truck was close to the road, further than he'd like with werewolves at his back and he kept his cloak high. He didn't sense them approaching, though and reached the vehicle with nothing but his own mounting anger, grief and – yes – fear accompanying him.

He slammed into the driver's seat and placed his hands on the wheel.

They were shaking.

Gabriel. Victor. Judith.

Gone within weeks of each other.

Flashes of memory of their time as Envoys passed through his head, and he swallowed down his grief.

Memories.

Envoys.

Messages.

The message in his phone.

And that was when it hit Patrice. So clearly that he was shocked that it only just occurred to him.

Frantically, he fumbled with his phone as he started the car. He found Betty Stewart's number and was about to start dialling and driving when he realized a motorbike was blocking his car.

"What the-" he cursed. He tossed the phone aside and jumped out. The bike was abandoned and he was about to use magic to smash it out of his path when he spotted somebody weaving towards him, bottle in hand. Of course, he thought contemptously, recognizing the man coming. The drunk from earlier.

"Get this heap of junk out of my way or I'll tow it down," he roared.

The man may or may not have heard him. He still walked at the same stumbling pace, half-mumbling, half-humming. As he came nearer, Patrice realized with outrage that the idiot was singing.

He reached out anxiously with magic but the werewolves and the Hunters were still in the bar. Probably discussing the particulars of how to prostrate before Joshua's psychopath boy, he thought scornfully. If they only knew…

The drunk was close enough now to see Patrice standing by his vehicle. He stumbled to a stop, and peered at him through a dirty beard that covered half of his face.

"Problem, mister?"

"Get your bike out of my way."

"My bike?" He blinked at Patrice. Then he turned to his bike. A look of amazement crossed his face. "Well whatcha know? That's me bike there. Aint she a beauty?"

Patrice had had enough, he reached out to the man, his hand clapping over his upper arm, a spell that would put him into nightmarish sleep already starting in his head.

The man swung his other arm – the one with the bottle – and sent it crashing into Patrice's skull.

He felt the shock before he felt the pain, and he stepped back a full foot, before he fell to his knees. Still dazed, he put his hand on his temple and saw blood.

He snorted softly, even as his vision suddenly, drastically dimmed. "You picked the wrong old man to hustle, fool."

"More like," and there was no slur in this biker's voice, no thick highlander accent in his voice. His words were sharp and clear and cut through Patrice's daze enough to make him look up in alarm. " _You_ picked the wrong Praetor to piss off."

Patrice sent out a wave of magic, and felt it slam back into him, pain ricocheting from the base of his neck to the balls of his feet.

 _What the -?_

The 'biker' yanked him to his feet, so that they were level enough that his fist could go flying into Patrice's face. Patrice dodged, his jaw turning right into the sucker punch that came from the biker's other fist.

He shouted this time, falling back flat on his back.

He tried and failed to get up.

A pair of boots approached his face. He barely managed to turn his head, his vision now rapidly receding, to see the man bend low enough to look at him.

Malachai Parker – the biker façade slipping off so completely that Patrice felt a shiver of alarm at the seamlessness of the glamour – was staring at him with a diabolical grin.

"So there's this washed-up old-timer that's been talking crap about me for as long as I remember; and word on the street is that I'd find him here." The grin widened, and the sight of it almost paralyzed Patrice Lang, sixty-year-old practicing wizard with fear. "Hey, Patrice. What's good?"

* * *

 **Author's Note #1** : Yes, that was Kai channeling his inner Nicki Minaj at the end. :)

As always, thanks to my dear beta, **keenan24** (of "By and Down" - ).

Everyone is upset that there isn't enough Bonkai interaction - even me! LOL! But I promise once we get through this 'bridge' in the story where they just have to be in separate spaces, doing their separate things, then we'll get more of them dealing with each other. We just need to trudge through another chapter or two. But to tide you guys by... I'm a bit out of ideas for flashbacks for this time, so you can suggest anything from the past (BK-related, I'm guessing, but really just about anything is fair game) and I'll put it in the next update. Now if it's something that is already planned for a specific chapter, I will probably hold off on that. (So yeah, don't ask for the day/night after Jo's wedding. :D :D :D :D)

Until the next update. Thanks always for sticking with this story and please let me know what you think in the reviews. :)

 **Author's Note #2** : Thanks a lot for all the lovely feedback I'm getting on the rewrite. Just a reminder that if fanfiction-net is not letting you leave a signed-in review, you can always leave one without logging in, and just sign off your name manually so I'll know who it's from.


	12. 12

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

* * *

 _June 2013_

Kai half-expected Bonnie to be gone by the time he came out, was already steeling himself for the disappointment of meeting the hotel suite abandoned. So when he felt her aura radiating through the door, and pushed past it to see her standing in the cutest, softest, fluffiest white bathrobe in the small kitchenette, fumbling with the coffee machine, he had to turn away for a moment to hide the grin of sheer glee that threatened to split his face into two.

She must have caught it all the same, because when he turned back, she was frowning up at him. "I don't suppose it occurred to you to get some of my stuff when you ported back to your flat?" Her eyes made a quick once-over of his new jeans and tee.

Her flippant question did nothing to hide the way her face had coloured slightly during that quick once-over and he smirked broadly, putting a hand over his chest. "You thought I'd break into your college dorm and raid through your lady-things? What do you take me for?"

He hadn't even planned the innuendo. It just slipped out. And he saw with no small gratification the way her eyes darkened, before she turned her gaze back at the machine, fidgeting.

"Do you need any help?"

"No," she snapped.

"Alrighty," he retorted, biting back on the flash of hurt. He hesitated for a half-second, then he came close enough to lean by the counter beside her, where he could better enjoy the view of her flawless skin, her heart shaped, makeup less face, her hair black from her shower, and curly too so that her neck was exposed.

"I ordered room service before I left. They should be here in," he glanced at his watch, "a half hour or so. With coffee," he added pointedly.

She didn't deign to respond to that, just bent closer to her task, exposing another inch or so of her upper back. The urge to bury his face against her neck was unbearable and he discreetly, held onto the counter for dear life, knowing from the way her body had stiffened when he came nearer that she won't welcome it.

Not at first, maybe.

She said nothing. Kai, never one to be comfortable with long silences, went on, "I could have cooked up something myself but I'm paying for bed and breakfast so…"

Bonnie glanced at him from beneath her long lashes and his breath caught at the flash of green intensity. "Yeah, because the last time I got a home-cooked meal from you, it ended so well for you." Her voice was as sweet and cool as poison.

His grip tightened on the counter, this time because he had to fight the urge to punch himself in the face for his own stupidity.

She set her jaw, her chin lifting slightly in that characteristic gesture of defiance. "About last night…" she started, and there was nothing about the detached, resolved tone of her voice that he liked.

"And the evening before that, and the early hours of this morning," he jibed, quickly cutting off her words.

It was so gratifying to see her face color with a different emotion from anger.

"If you want to get technical," she said curtly, making a show of returning her attention to the machine that she had probably destroyed already.

"Oh, I do," he murmured, inching nearer. "I want to get very, very technical with you…"

"Kai!" she gasped.

It did something to him, hearing her say his name. Burnt right through him, and for a moment it was all he could do not to throw himself at her.

"What?" he said, his voice strangled.

"What happened doesn't change anything," she muttered.

His heart, already unsteady, started beating erratically, and he knew there was no hiding the emotions on his face.

It was a good thing Bonnie wasn't looking at him then, her gaze fixed on the machine in front of her, her shoulders tightening with clear resolve. "Yes, I get that you've changed… become this new person… But _this_ … this was a mistake. Just because-"

"Got it," he said tightly. She threw him another quick look, then away.

Kai forced the muscles in his face to unclench, forced his mind to push past the wall of pain that was threatening to overshadow it. He knew she'd try to pull something like this. Had thought about it during his short trip this morning. At least she wasn't playing the 'Jeremy Gilbert' card. That was another thought that had crossed Kai's mind, and curse his new-found empathy for feeling the smidgen of guilt about _that_. But Bonnie hadn't once mentioned that name in the past 72 hours and after that first time, Kai thought it wise to follow suit.

So that meant her reservations had nothing to do with the other man but just Kai himself. Which, yeah, was a pretty huge mountain of a roadblock, but as the past 72 hours had proven, not as insurmountable as he once thought.

It was up to him to change her mind.

He watched her face now, her eyes narrowed, her lips screwed with resolve as she fought with the coffee maker that she was clearly using to distract herself from the tension that was between them. He remembered her looking just like this in 1994, in the time she struggled to find her magic back. Even then he had wanted to reach out a hand, smoothen out the crumples from her face.

"Let me help you with that," he said brusquely, and in one swift movement, he had trapped her between his body and the counter, ignoring her sharp gasp as his long arms went around her fluffy robe to rescue the poor coffee machine. His hands brushed against hers, slowly, deliberately as he fiddled with the device, until she snatched her hands away, pressing them flat on the counter in front of her.

Her magic was flashing across her skin, rushing at his own, and he could smell brimstone in the air, as the charge built up between them.

"Kai…"

"It'll just take a moment," he said, with a casualness he didn't feel as his magic made quick work of the device, the parts pulling apart to float in the air, then falling back into place. He pressed the button and it whirred into life. When he switched it off, the silence that followed was almost deafening.

Bonnie broke it with a shaky sigh. "OK, that's-"

"No thank you?" he murmured, moving just a fractional inch closer, lowering his face nearer to the skin that was practically begging him to touch it.

"Kai…"

"Shh…" He said, and finally gave into his earlier urge to bury his face in her neck. He felt, more than he heard, her breath catch in her throat and he pressed against her, closing the microscopic space between their bodies so that she could feel just how badly he wanted her.

"We can't…"

"Why not?" he demanded, his mouth open against her skin, her scent driving him mad but all he did was stay in place, his hands sliding to cover her own, the machine completely forgotten.

For a moment, they were silent, she was frozen, while he was fighting the urge to rock his hips into the amazing ass in front of him. He could feel her response to him, in the way she trembled, the little wet breaths she inhaled, the rapid beat of her pulse against his cheek, but more than that, in the way her magic rose to her skin to ignite against his own, little sensory explosions setting off between the two of them. He almost came from the sheer heat of it all.

Then she sighed deeply, and she shifted, slowly, deliberately against him.

Stars flashed across his eyes, and he only barely heard what she said. "You want more from me than I'm ready to give you."

Now that she had given him permission, albeit overtly, his hands made quick work of the ties of her bathrobe, and his hands were finally, finally, on the smooth skin of her stomach. He felt her muscles clench under his touch, but his fingers moving quickly until they were brushing the apex of her thighs. She gasped, and spread her legs apart and he felt it again – that sense of awe that had hit him the first time, that she was letting him do this, that this was finally happening.

The little blood left in his brain was barely enough to string words, let alone form sentences, but he was fighting for his life here. "All I want is for you to give me another chance," he said – lied, really because oh, he wanted so much more from her. More than he had even realized at first when the constant thoughts of her had threatened to drive him mad, and he thought that an unburdening of his new-found emotions was all that he needed to exorcise himself of her ghost. But time passed and he just kept wanting more. And she had betrayed him and hurt him and still he hadn't been able to stop, hadn't been able to not hold onto her coming back for him, and feeling so fucking grateful to her for that. And now they had finally had sex and he realized that even that was not going to satisfy him.

That was his problem, wasn't it? He was a greedy bastard. He wanted all of her.

"Give me a chance, Bonnie," he groaned, his lips tracing from her earlobe down her cheek, as his fingers finally slid into slick, hot, wetness of her. She moaned, her eyes falling shut as her head fell back to land on his chest. He now had an amazing view down her front, and not for the first time in the past 24 hours, he wandered if he wasn't still trapped in 1903 and having an incredible series of dreams.

But this was no dream. This was reality, him in this hotel suite, finger-fucking Bonnie Bennett as she rubbed her remarkable ass against his throbbing dick while the curtains and the windows rattled with the force of the wild magic that was igniting between them.

"Please, Bonnie," he begged, his lips just pressing the corner of her mouth. The angle and their height difference made it impossible for him to get close enough to kiss her, and he wanted to, badly, but just as badly, he wanted to keep rocking against her, and keep feeling her muscles clenching around his fingers.

Then she was turning around in a swift, smooth motion that kept his fingers inside her as she reached to wrap her fingers through his hair and bring his mouth to hers. From the corner of his half-closed eyes, he saw something explode and he wandered if it was the coffee machine but whatever worry that caused vanished in the wake of consuming her mouth with his own. The kiss was as frantic as their hands on each other. In minutes, his tee and jeans were in burnt shreds on the floor, and her robe was a soft, fluffy pool of white beside his clothes as she hopped onto the counter, lifting her knees while she pushed him down to his own with her fingers in his hair.

Then the scent, feel, _taste_ of her flooded his senses, short-circuiting his brain and for the next thirty minutes, there was no talk of regrets, of things that did not matter, just Bonnie, Bonnie, _Bonnie_ , and her moaning, then screaming his name.

* * *

 _August 2013_

 _Rijswijk, Netherlands._

"So… on a scale of one to ten."

"You really want to go there?"

"Truth or dare, Elena."

Elena sighed heavily, made a show of swirling her wine glass, then sighing again and made a show of flipping her hair. Which was ridiculous considering that her hair was now shorter than Bonnie's old bob.

By the end of it, the other two girls were ready to strangle her.

"Elena!"

She burst out laughing, her eyes sparkling like her glass. "Fine! On a scale of one to ten, I'll say… thirteen."

Caroline fall back, deflated. "Wow. That good?"

Elena grinned smugly, her cheeks reddening ever so slightly. Whether from the memory or from the wine, Bonnie couldn't tell. "Yep. Stefan is very …" She cleared her throat. "… attentive to detail."

Bonnie hooted and the other two girls burst out laughing.

It was their last night in Europe and they were getting wasted. Not that that was much different from a lot of their nights in Europe– well, a lot of Bonnie's nights in Europe – but they were doing it in the privacy of their shared cottage for a change, and not some seedy bar.

The seedy bars had been fun, Bonnie thought, her mind wandering a little as Caroline pestered Elena for more details. And dancing on tables was something she was never going to regret doing. But this, this pocket of time with her girls, was even more precious.

Especially with the sense of finality that hung heavy over them, even as they steadily drank their way through the night.

"But come on, you had the whole humanity-switch off sex spree," Elena was saying now.

Caroline shrugged and it was a testimony to how wasted they all were that a taboo topic had been so casually raised.

"Not having emotions makes the kind of feelings you need … well, that _I_ need to enjoy sex… mostly absent." She shrugged again.

Elena shuddered. "Tell me about it." Her eyes cut to Bonnie, and despite the glasses she had consumed, her eyes sharpened. "You're awfully quiet, Ms. Bennett. It's your turn."

"Oooh," Caroline said, rubbing her hands together. Or trying to. She kept missing them, and ended up fist-bumping the air instead. "This is good. Was it Henri from Belgium or Roberto the Italian?"

"Your guess is as good as mine because all their names are jumbled up in my head," Bonnie retorted, sipping her glass.

Elena coughed. "Now that I think about it, I will plead the Fifth for Bonnie." Over Caroline's cries of 'No Fair!' Elena continued, "Because Jeremy is in the running here and depending on Bonnie's answer, I'll be either offended or nauseated."

Bonnie leaned over and clinked glasses with Elena. "Smart move."

Caroline glared at both of them. "Well, with all due respect, Big Sister, I doubt it's Jeremy," she snapped, "or someone in Europe, now that _I_ think about it. Remember after Jo's wedding, Elena? When after two days of worrying and wondering where the eff she was, Bonnie showed up with Jo's brother? That hawwwwt specimen of a man. What was his name? What was his name?"

"Unless it's a _she_ or two," Elena cut in, talking over Caroline's words like if she hadn't heard her. "Those girls, Nora and Freya? Just how up close and personal did you guys get?"

Bonnie made a show of rolling her eyes but inside, her heart was pounding and she reached for the bottle, and filled her glass with shaky hands. "Give it a rest, Elena."

"I just want to know. For science. Since we lost a lot of easy money in Belgium because Miss Prude here refused to make out with me."

"I'm sorry that I didn't think pandering to a couple of frat boys was worth a few lousy euros."

"A few _thousand_ lousy euros."

"Bonnie, that was total fail," Caroline declared, shaking her head. "Especially after hooking up with your groupies. You can make out with some random chicks but not with us, your BFFs?"

"I did not hook up with Freya and Nora!" Bonnie declared, half-laughing.

"So you admit you hooked up with Freya _or_ Nora?"

"No!"

"Really, Bonnie? Really? You just ditched us for a week in the middle of Paris to run off and _not_ have a lesbian threesome?"

"I needed some air. You two were getting on my nerves, and spoiling my fun. Elena broke a bottle on my date's head, for goodness' sake."

"That was bad-ass, by the way," Caroline said, leaning over to hi-five Elena. "Wish I had been there."

"Thank everything that you weren't," Elena retorted. "Bonnie and her groupies were dancing on the table. Without underwear. It wasn't pretty."

"The fuck-load of euros that we got beg to differ. Plus open invitation to all the bars on the Strait." Bonnie pumped a fist up and whooped.

"OK, so _then_ you had no problem with pandering?"

The night continued in pretty much the same vein, as they all relived the best and the worst of their time in Europe. The bottles finally ran out and now, too wasted to navigate to their respective beds, they managed to drag down a duvet and cover themselves, huddling on the floor together.

There was time when the duvet would have fitted them with spare, but now Caroline's feet stuck out and one side of Elena's body was cold. It was Bonnie, snug against the wall that was the most comfortable.

"Remember when Bonnie gave me a black eye?" Elena whispered.

"You deserved it!"

"Like you deserved Care biting you?" Elena retorted.

"Why did you have to bring that up again?" Caroline yelled. "Bonnie, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"Oh get over it, Care. We all took shots at each other. Elena snapped your neck."

"I still don't know how she did that!" Caroline shouted. She was a loud drunk. "Oh my god, you are so freakishly strong!"

All of them burst out laughing then, at nothing in particular. Then they fell silent, drifting slowly.

"Are you ever going to come back?" Bonnie wondered.

She didn't realize she had asked the question out loud until Elena answered, "I'll always be with you. Here." She touched her heart, then shifting awkwardly, she reached over to touch Caroline's, then Bonnie's.

Bonnie swallowed the lump in her throat. Beside her, Caroline was already sniffling.

"I'm going to miss you so much!" Caroline shouted.

"Shhh," Elena said softly, but whether she was comforting her or trying to get her to quieten down, Bonnie didn't know. Elena was mumbling something to Caroline. Something about Stefan. Or Matt. It was hard to keep track of the guys they had shared. The conversation barely registered in Bonnie's head, most of it not making a lot of sense to her in her inebriated state.

She had probably even fallen asleep all the way when she heard Elena's voice again. "Pssst. Bonnie. Pssst."

"What?"

"There're still two more weeks until the end of summer," Elena said, her voice sounding unusually clear and lucid. "Enough time to go to Portland and back."

Bonnie laughed softly, sadly. "Bad idea, Elena."

"Why?" Elena sounded almost as sad as Bonnie felt. When Bonnie didn't answer, Elena pressed on, "Because he was a monster? He changed, Bonnie."

Bonnie swallowed the lump that threatened to choke her. Could barely get the words past her throat. "Elena. Stop." And because she was drunk, and it was the last night in Europe and tomorrow would be the first of many days, weeks, years that she won't see her childhood friend again – but not for him, never for him – tears slipped past her lids.

"He didn't change," she sobbed in the dark. "I thought he had, but he didn't. He's still a-"

"A monster. So what? He's your monster, Bonnie."

"I don't need any monsters," Bonnie thought sadly. "I'm monster enough for me."

And once again, she must have spoken out loud because Elena reached over Caroline's sleeping body, to entwine her fingers with Bonnie's. "We're all monsters, Bonnie."

"Not you, Elena. You're human now."

She could hear her friend's head shaking. "We're _all_ monsters. In the dark, when our backs are against the wall, when the people we love are in danger, when we think we've got nothing to lose, and revenge is all that matters. We're all capable of being monsters – human, witch, vampire, or werewolf. It's not what we _are_ that makes us monsters, it's what we _can do._ Have done."

Her voice trailed off. There was a long moment of weighty, guilty silence, as goose-bumps crawling on Bonnie's flesh as she fought her mind to _not remember…_

Then Elena spoke again, and Bonnie almost gasped in relief.

"That short time before we left for Europe… You weren't exactly happy, Bonnie, but you looked like if you were going to be. It made me happy, knowing you had that waiting around the corner for you. It made everything worth it. Don't throw it all away."

Even with her pain, and drowsiness, and alcohol, something in Bonnie – call it her Elena-switch – flickered at that. "Made every _what_ worthwhile?"

Elena was silent.

"Elena?"

Elena sighed. "Going away. Leaving Mystic Falls. You all. I thought I was leaving _you_ in safe hands."

The memory of Kai's hands suddenly sent a rush of heat through Bonnie, and she looked at the wall, and snorted with laughter even as the tears kept pouring down her cheeks.

Elena's fingers left Bonnie's and then she felt them on her face. "You've been such a good friend to me, Bonnie. I love you so much. I need to know you'll be happy someday."

It only made the tears run faster. "I will."

"Promise?"

"I promise." She swallowed her sobs enough to say, "I love you, too, Elena. Be safe here, OK?" She sighed. "And I'm sorry I hurt your feelings when I didn't make out with you at the bar."

Long after she fell asleep, and for many weeks after that, she could still hear Elena's surprised laugh echoing in her head.

* * *

 _June 2014_

"Rise and shine!"

Bonnie's eyes bleared open and then shut back immediately at the sight of Caroline's overly bright smile.

"Go away, Caroline."

There was a huff, then she felt strong hands clamp around her arms and shake her.

"Hey!" she yelled, eyes still closed and hoping this was all a bad dream.

"Bonnie! Get up!"

Her eyes re-opened reluctantly, and she finally got a good look at Caroline's jogging outfit.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope. You asked me to put you on a schedule this summer, remember?"

Bonnie groaned with regret at her foolishness. "Caroline, I barely got any sleep last night. My body is still three hours ahead."

"Oregon is three hours _behind_ and if you don't force yourself back into our time-zone, you'll be out of it for days. Vampires don't need workouts. Witches do. Now say thank you and get up!"

Bonnie moaned plaintively. "Go away!"

In a half-second, Caroline had flown across the room and opened all the window blinds. The bright light seemed to tear right through Bonnie's eyes and she sat up with a yell.

"Get up, Bonnie! You know you'll love it the moment you start moving."

There was no stopping Caroline Forbes once she was in this mode. Bonnie knew this from long, sad experience. So slowly, miserably, grumbling with every inch, she crawled out of bed; after a trip to the bathroom – Caroline drill-sergeanting her loudly and obnoxiously through the door – she pulled on the running outfit that her friend had already laid out and dragged her ass out of the room, and through her front door.

They were already in the elevator, when her tired brain finally woke up and registered the still-ruffled sofa and pillow she had passed by in the living room. "Where's Stefan?" she asked.

"He was taking a shower when we left," Caroline said curtly in a voice that brooked no further question, as the lift opened.

Huh. "Looks like he spent the night in the living room," Bonnie said, not giving a damn about Caroline's voice.

"That was the plan," Caroline deadpanned.

Bonnie decided to drop it – for now.

They were already outside then, and the early morning coolness hit Bonnie's face, waking her even further.

"Get your ass moving, Bennett!" Caroline yelled, shouldering Bonnie as she kicked into a jog.

"Ow," Bonnie muttered, rubbing her shoulder; but she twisted her baseball cap around her head and took off.

Caroline was obviously running far slower than she could, but still fast enough for Bonnie to take a while to catch up with her and match her pace. Much as Bonnie loathed admitting it, it took mere minutes before her body moved from grumbling slouch-mode and entered 'the zone'. The wind was in her face, delightfully cooling her heated skin. Her Nikes pounded on the pavement alongside Caroline's, and her own long, deep breaths were more music to her ears than the stream of hip hop sounds from an mp3 player.

"I told you," Caroline yelled, grinning at her friend, no doubt smelling the endorphins that were rushing through Bonnie's veins, intoxicating the witch more than any of those binge-o-manic nights in Europe had.

"Shut up, vampire freak," Bonnie yelled back, and Caroline huffed.

"Just for that I won't tell you all the latest campus gossip."

Bonnie scoffed. "Yeah, right." Caroline would implode if she even tried.

And sure enough, it didn't take long before the blonde broke her word – 'to put Bonnie out of her misery' – and started a running commentary of the latest campus gossip, which was surprisingly still very juicy even during the summer break.

They wove round their usual circuit through campus, and waved at the few familiar faces that remained over the summer. A particularly cute boy from Bonnie's Occult Studies class whistled long and low as they jogged past him. Caroline actually did a 360, still running, to wave back at him, making Bonnie splutter as she laughed and panted at the same time.

They jogged past the old student cafeteria and its 'marked for demolition' sign. A new modern cafeteria on the other side of the block had been opened at the start of summer, and this plot was going to be turned into a park. All courtesy of the new owners of Whitmore who seemed to be constantly revamping the real estate on campus. Bonnie sighed nostalgically. She had pulled many overnighters at the campus library during the year; and she usually popped over at the cafeteria before returning to her flat or going to an early morning class. Sometimes, she found a familiar face to sit with and she'd catch up on the latest campus gossip herself – which professors were sleeping together (or with a student), the odds on Friday's game, even more pertinent news like politics and world affairs would come up.

They were jogging back now, the apartment building looming ahead, and were moving slow enough to have a two-sided conversation. Bonnie waved a hand at the Deputy's cars parked at a reserved spot.

"Someone's not abusing their parking privileges," she observed wryly.

Caroline grinned. "Perks of the job."

Bonnie snorted.

Caroline ran into her, making Bonnie almost lose her balance. "Ow! Watch it, clumsy vampire!"

"So what's up with you and Mattie?"

Bonnie slowed to a walk, rubbing her side. "We plan on going to the morgue to look at the body of that witch that died while I was away. We've done it for all the victims so far. Nothing ever comes out of it…" She trailed off at the exasperated look on Caroline's face. "What?"

Caroline shoved at her again. "You really don't know?"

"All I know is that the next time you run into me, I'm going to fry your brains!"

Caroline shook her head and threw up her hands. "You are hopeless, Bonnie Bennett."

What the hell?

But no matter how much Bonnie kept pestering, firing question after question at her friend as they marched into the building and went up the lift, Caroline stayed mute. Verbally, that was. She was very loud with her sighs, the dramatic head shaking, and the narrow-eyed 'you-are-so-hopeless' glances she kept throwing at Bonnie.

By the time they were entering the flat, Bonnie was this close to aneurysm the other girl for real. She got distracted at the sound of familiar voices coming from the kitchen, where apparently Stefan's, Damon's, Tyler's and Matt's. Caroline, whose vampire hearing must have picked up on the others much sooner, had already speed-walked to her room, leaving Bonnie to trudge into her own, and a much-needed shower. The cool water was a balm to her sore, slightly out of shape muscles, and by the time she was dressed in her shorts and loose blouse, she had forgotten about her friend's weirdness, and was already planning her day.

Her first instinct was to drift towards the Grimoires on her table, avoid the others completely and put finishing touches on the plan that had germinated before she slept. But her thoughts of studying were arrested by a sudden, amazingly pleasant smell that wafted into her room. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. Almost blindly, Bonnie left her room, and followed her nose to what it recognised as the aroma of rich pastries, and even richer coffee. It lured her towards the kitchen, and she could hear voices coming from within:

"And that was the first and last time, I saw the insides of a creature with two sets of guts," said Matt.

"You're very sure that was the last time, Donovan? You got a crystal ball hidden somewhere in that utility belt of yours?" That was Tyler, talking with his mouth full. Bonnie made a face.

"Come on. Two dragons in one lifetime? I think your bad luck only runs with women." That was Damon's voice, with a slur that said he was having his usual breakfast of bourbon.

"What would you know?" Tyler countered promptly. "You weren't even there. Had to make a sudden trip out of state, my ass. You turned tail and ran."

"Watch it, Lockwood or I'll be tasting Stefan's cooking the best way I like it - intravenously."

"You're not scary anymore, Damon," Matt retorted, lazily. "Not after we met Demon Santa."

"You know who else met it?" Tyler added. " _Enzo._ He was the one who stuck around and saved all our asses while Stefan here rescued Caroline. Can you believe it, Donovan?"

"Still can't. If anyone had told me that it'd be Enzo that I'd owe my life to someday…"

There was a moment of silence. Bonnie, who had paused just outside the door, felt a small pang herself. She and Damon's old friend had barely interacted after her return from 1994. But he had proved his worth to the gang in his own way.

Matt continued, "I was _lucky_ to live to tell the tale. I still can't quite figure out how I did. I can still smell its ghastly breath as its jaws closed…"

"Care to join us, Bon or are you just going to keep lurking outside the door?" Damon asked suddenly.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and strolled into the kitchen

"Lovely breakfast conversation guys," she muttered, pointedly ignoring him and making a beeline for the coffee pot.

He was leaning against the other door in his typical black tee and jeans, and waved his bottle at her, leering at her legs out of habit. Stefan nodded at her from where he stood in front of the stove, a prim flower-patterned apron over the slacks he slept in, and that explained the small crowd that converged in the kitchen.

And probably why Caroline was probably sitting this get-together out. Not for the first – or last time – she wondered what was going on with her best friend and the Salvatore junior.

Tyler and Matt were in uniform, sitting at the small table. They looked up when she entered. Tyler grinned his good morning but Matt frowned.

"Where've you been?" he asked curtly.

Stefan sighed heavily.

"Jogging with Caroline," Bonnie said, surprised at the attitude.

"Just like I said already," Stefan added lowly while Damon snorted into his drink.

Matt scowled at the vampires, then at Bonnie, surprising her even further. "When you didn't answer your phone, I got worried."

"I left it in the flat. Didn't think I needed it with Caroline."

"Well, a crazy heretic almost killed you yesterday, Bonnie. So excuse your friends for worrying a bit."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "You didn't sound so worried a few minutes ago while you guys reminisced about jingle bells, blood and guts. By the way, now that I'm here, can we _not_ talk about jingle bells, blood and guts for the next fifteen minutes? Kinda ruins the appetite."

She filled her cup, then squeezed in between the two deputies at the table. Matt still had an upside-down smile so she made a face at him, and shoved his shoulder. It took a while, but he finally caved, his face softening into a rueful grin, and he shoved back.

She reached for the bowl of delicious looking pastries as she turned her smile at Tyler; but he didn't return it. His face was tense as he eyed the big donut she had just grabbed.

Bonnie blinked. _Seriously?_

"You sure you don't want to hear more about last Winter, Bonnie?" Matt asked, his mischievous voice distracting her from Tyler. "You missed all the fun. Nothing says Christmas spirit like meeting the Santa version of the IT Clown."

Bonnie shuddered. "No, thank you. So what're you all doing here? As if I can't guess?" She took a bite of a hot bun and hummed happily and loudly – for Tyler's benefit. His eyes had never once lifted from her donut. Really, how greedy could he be that he'd begrudge her eating food cooked in her own kitchen?

"I wanted to see if you and Damon were up for going to the M.E. this morning," Matt said, looking outraged. "I've got some paperwork to pick up there. I sent _you_ a message but I guess you didn't have your phone with you…"

Oh. "I forgot that," Bonnie said sheepishly.

"Then you weren't home and no one was sure where you were…"

"I was sure, not that it matters," Stefan murmured.

"And we hung around to make sure you were OK," Tyler concluded for his friend, looking away long enough from Bonnie's food to act wounded.

It was almost enough to make a girl feel guilty. Almost. "Nothing whatsoever to do with…" She cleared her throat and started singing. _"Stefan's baking brings all the boys to the yard. Damn right it's better than yours, damn right it's better than yours…"_

She stopped singing when the younger Salvatore laughed out loud, surprising her. Their eyes met and they shared tentative grins, last night's conversation still fresh in memory.

Matt and Tyler were protesting while Damon barked out a laugh from where he leaned on the door, chugging a bottle.

Bonnie raised a brow at him _. Really?_ She hoped it said _. A whole bottle?_

He grinned around it and chugged on with gusto.

"You know, just for that stupid song, I will talk some more about the Demon Santa," Matt said with a mock glare at her. "Now, I've seen some disgusting things…"

"I'm eating, Matt."

He ignored that. "… even though it had horns that looked like phallic worms with teeth, and I threw up all of Stefan's Christmas pudding when I looked down its jaws…"

"I swear I will throw up on you right now."

"… and it was pretty horrible at the time, and I'll never see a Santa the same way again, and yeah, Christmas is ruined for me forever, and I probably lost ten years of my life from the sheer horror of it all…"

"Where is this going?"

"I'm trying to say that _I_ got a chance to see a real live dragon, Bonnie and _you_ didn't," Matt teased.

Bonnie fake-gasped, "Shoot! There goes my bucket list."

Matt shoved her again and she shoved back, while the others laughed.

Even as she joined in the laughter, a part of Bonnie's mind couldn't help thinking how strange all this was. How strangely easy it had been to slip back into this life, where monster talk was something to crack jokes about. Where monster talk was something that happened around her at all, at least with this group of people.

Over the past year, there had been several times when she and Caroline had shared breakfast, and instead of sharing school gossip, Caroline had filled her in on the latest Mystic Falls supernatural drama - on Bonnie's request. Caroline was fully aware and in full support of Bonnie's year-long vow of keeping away from supernatural feuds and schemes in general, and Salvatores in particular. But Bonnie had also wanted to have a vague idea of goings-on, nothing too specific, just enough not to get any nasty surprises.

Caroline had been the only exception. Upon their return from Europe, Bonnie had subtly but undisputedly laid down the law, banning any "shop talk" from their Mystic Falls friends in her flat, or to her in any form. Now that she thought about it, it had been easier than Bonnie had expected to get the vampire brothers and her ghost-busting friends to back off from using her as a magical fail-safe. Sure, she had got the occasional call from Damon – which stopped when she blocked his number – and Stefan would pop over, ostensibly to visit Caroline and drop a few hints, as did Matt and Tyler, but after a few not-too-subtle dismissals from Bonnie, even those stopped all together.

It was both enlightening and… well, strangely disheartening just how easily Bonnie got her space when she put her foot down firmly. Made her wonder if all those times in the past, she had felt backed in the corner, it had less to do with the forcefulness of the demands on her and more to do with her own inability to stand her ground.

It was also strange, she thought as she watched their smiling faces now, strange and amazing just how OK everyone was joking about this now. For some reason, Bonnie had imagined that they'd be holding her 'checking out' on them over the past year against her for probably the rest of her life. But although it still came up once in a while this past month of her 'return', no one ever brought it up in a way that was more than good-natured teasing.

It really made one think.

She reached for yet another bun – Stefan's pastries really were the best – and noticed Tyler staring again.

She heaved a loud sigh. "Tyler."

He started, as if surprised that she had noticed his obvious glares. "What…"

"There's enough food to go around," she said, pointedly.

"Oh… Sorry, I was…" He laughed a little, but she noticed he was still staring at the half-eaten bun in her hand. "I was actually wondering where you got that tattoo."

 _Oh._

Bonnie felt some of the blood leave her face as four pairs of eyes locked on her wrist. The sleeve of her blouse had fallen back when she had reached for the food, and her souvenir from a certain coven leader was in clear view of everyone. In the early morning sun, the black ink was stark against her golden skin.

She shrugged her wrist, turning it so that her hem slid to cover it, but the harm was already done. The curious eyes went from her hand to her face. She shrugged, making a show of chewing her food slowly.

"That's a very… ordinary looking tattoo," Matt said finally, clearly searching for words. "I won't have thought it was your style, Bon, but it… fits you somehow. Nice."

"Didn't notice that a while ago," Stefan said sharply. "Where did you get it?"

Bonnie gave him a curt, warning look, then she shrugged, sipping her coffee. "Where do people get tattoos?" She said, deflecting, and looked around at the others. "Why're you all clutching your pearls? I'm too straight-laced to get some fancy ink?" She asked scornfully, going for the offensive.

"It depends," Damon drawled, "on where else you have a tattoo."

That got a hoot from Tyler and a disapproving grunt from Matt. Damon went on to make some more comments on needing to perform an inspection, and Bonnie let that go on for a little while before she turned his bourbon into hot coffee. He was still spluttering in outrage as she got up.

"Gotta get ready for our date with dead people, Matt," she quipped, with a bright smile and a light step. She got to the door and, like an afterthought, said over her shoulder to Tyler. "Hey, Ty, do you have a sec? I need someone to help grab something off the top of my closet."

"So you ask Tyler?" Damon scoffed.

Tyler was on his feet at once, pointedly ignoring Damon. "Sure, Bonnie."

"I can help, Bon-" Matt started.

Damon groaned loudly, and was it her imagination but did Stefan snicker?

Matt fell silent, and it definitely wasn't Bonnie's imagination that his face seemed to brighten with colour.

"Er…" Bonnie started, wondering what she was missing here, but Tyler had already grabbed her elbow and the two left for her room.

They stepped in; he shut the door and leaned on it, folding his arms. "Spit it out, girl."

Bonnie covered her eyes, laughing ruefully. "I thought I was being subtle."

"Picking me out of those guys 'to help grab something off the top of my closet'?" He mimicked her voice, making her roll her eyes. "I'm confident with my height but nope." His face turned serious. "It's your tattoo, isn't it?"

She answered by pushing back her sleeve. Both of them stared at her wrist.

Bonnie swallowed. "Mind telling me what's the deal with a little ink anyway that's got you so worried, Lockwood?"

He frowned. "Bonnie, you and I both know that's not really a tattoo."

His voice was ominous and a shudder ran through Bonnie.

Why had she got so comfortable carrying this thing around?

She stared into Tyler's worried face and it was on the tip of her lip to just fess up – wasn't she the one that made the rule about full disclosure at all times in the team? – but she had a sudden, vivid mental image of that look of concentration on Kai's face as he strapped the black band around her wrist, the surge of magic as it tightened around her wrist – and she felt her face burn, and her throat closed.

Tyler's frown deepened. "Where did you get that, Bonnie?"

"I can't say."

"Bonnie…"

"Tyler, please don't ask. Just tell me what you know about this."

"I know it's got some serious mojo in it. Gemini mojo, to be specific. But I can't tell if it's good or bad. That's what worries me the most."

Bonnie stared at her wrist. Tyler's werewolf instincts picked up on these things.

"Can you at least say what it's meant for?"

Bonnie opened her mouth –

A knock on the door made them both jump.

"Hey, BonBon, are you and Lockwood making out or something? Because someone's going to be seriously piss…"

Bonnie pushed past Tyler, yanked open the door and glared at Damon. She wasn't worried that he had overheard them. She understood that vampires developed selective hearing, as a form of protection against an otherwise bombardment of auditory overload. So Damon would need to be actively eavesdropping to hear her conversation with Tyler. And if he had been, he won't have interrupted her when he did.

But his rudeness gave her an opportunity to vent at _someone_.

"Scram."

He gave her and Tyler a clearly disappointed look. "Oh. Clothes on. How boring…"

"Scram," she repeated, less politely.

"I'll leave you to it in a minute but Donovan's on a clock and we're waiting on you to go to the M.E.."

Bonnie nodded. "I'm on my way."

He shuffled off.

She waited until he was out of sight. But she didn't shut the door when she turned to Tyler and gave him a hesitant look.

"Bonnie…"

"I can't say, Tyler," she said honestly. "I… just can't."

He opened his mouth – then closed it, clearly checking what he was about to say. "Just be careful with that thing, Bon," were his unnerving parting words.

Bonnie shut the door behind him, and for a moment, she rubbed at the band, feeling tendrils of _his_ magic.

It still didn't worry her. Maybe it should. But it didn't. And, if she were honest with herself, it was not just because she had so many more pressing things to worry about first.

She let go off her wrist, shoved off the door, and got a move on. Her day had barely started and it was already full.

* * *

 _June 2013_

"Do you have plans for today?"

"Look, Kai…"

"Do you?"

Bonnie sighed. "No."

She could _hear_ the grin in his voice over the phone. "Well, you plan on eating sometime, don't you?"

"Y-yes," she said warily.

"So why don't we do that, together? Let's say in two hours? My place? I know you know where I live."

"Kai, I don't think…"

"Or we could go out to eat? It'll be like a proper date and everything." His voice was light enough but there was the edge of a challenge in it.

She twisted the sheets of her dorm bed with her hand, and stared at the wall across from her. "I don't think this is a good idea, Kai."

"You promised you'd give me a chance, Bonnie." The determination his voice both beguiled and frightened her. How did her giving him a chance translate to having dinner with him? She wondered, despairingly.

"Kai…"

"It's just food, Bonnie. I promise. Nothing else."

 _Unless you want it to be more._ She didn't need him to say the rest of the words, they were already echoing loudly in her head.

A few days ago, she'd have laughed – or thrown up – at the idea that she'd ever want anything more of _that_ from Kai Parker.

Not anymore.

The idea of sitting across a table from him after everything that had just happened between them was enough to send her hyperventilating. And no way would it stop at just a harmless meal. As much as Bonnie had always liked to think that she had eons of self-control, she was fast finding out that that wasn't the case where Kai Parker was concerned. The best thing, she had told herself just that morning, was to avoid him completely until he left Virginia.

But at this moment, hearing his voice in her ear, tugging at her heart, making her body flush with memories and anticipation, a storm was churning through her and Bonnie couldn't think past it to anything she could do or say to get away from him.

She looked despairingly at Ms Cuddles lying beside her, and not for the first time in the past few days, Bonnie wished the bear could talk. Wished she had _anyone_ to talk to. But Caroline had disappeared shortly after the wedding, gone back to wherever she had gone to before to deal with her mother's death and the horrible decisions that had followed that. And Elena was, as always, too caught up in her own drama to realize what was going on with anyone else.

"OK," she said, quietly. The word echoed in her room with a sense of finality. Not for the first time in the past couple of days, she felt like if the walls of a trap were closing in on her.

"Great," he said, and his voice tried to play it cool but she could hear the triumph in it. "Er… dress as you like. Just come with an empty stomach."

"Sure. Bye, Kai." She hung up, quickly.

Empty stomach, Bonnie thought, wrapping her arms around her waist and stared at Ms Cuddles. That was going to be hard. Right now, said stomach was full of butterflies and dread.

This was a mistake. She and Kai Parker. It was a bad idea in every possible way. A train wreck. A disaster just waiting to happen. And she was damned if she could think of anything she could do to stop it.

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _Ranger, Wyoming_

"You're making a mistake." Patrice Lang had spat a few moments after meeting the leader of the coven he had self-exiled from.

"Am I?" Kai had wondered, amused smirk on his face. Then he had reached for the man's throat and pulled out his magic, stopping just before the man had a fatal heart attack.

It was still enough to make the man faint away from shock, and Kai had placed a sleeping spell on him to be doubly sure. He had shoved the man into his own truck, put his own motorcycle in the back and driven the truck to his cabin. He let them both in, found somewhere to dump Patrice on, and then Kai progressed to take a ten hour nap. Porting across the greater United States for the past forty-eight hours, calling in favors from his allies and reeling in renegade witches took a toll on a warlock. Even a mega-powerful coven leader like himself.

The next morning, he woke up in top form. Lang was still down for the count, so Kai got busy, running magical traces over the wizard, reconstruction and _Memorian_ spells through his house, and rifling detective-style through the man's things – mails, phone, even the decrepit looking computer in his office. There hadn't been much. His magical traces were routinely purged. His phone and mails were routinely cleared. Of course, that could have been down to habit – as the saying went, once an Envoy, always an Envoy.

Or maybe Patrice Lang had something to hide and was covering his tracks.

Kai's money was on the latter. His suspicions had formed when Rudolph reported that the ex-Envoy was proving difficult and now Kai was convinced. Patrice Lang knew a lot more about the strange goings-on with the heretics than he should. One way or the other, Kai was going to get to the bottom of things.

But first things first. Kai made himself a hearty breakfast. He found a fresh buck, of all things, skinned it, and made some good old venison stew. When it was ready, he even revived the old geezer and set a plate for him. Then Kai asked Lang to tell him the story about what he'd been up to since he deserted the Gemini. With the mildest of verbal motivations, the ex-Envoy spilled his tale.

A short tale, it was. Consisted mostly of hunting and mountain-climbing and a few get-togethers with some other renegade witches who had already chosen to return to the Gemini.

A short, harmless tale with no mention of heretics, or dealings with Joshua Parker. Or any of the things he had hinted at during his meeting with the Rudolph pack the night before.

A false tale.

Kai put a fork of venison in his mouth, savoured the taste with each chew before swallowing and washing it away with good ol' standard beer. "This is awesome. Nothing beats eating what you killed, right?"

Lang glared at him from across the table. His own plate of food was untouched.

Kai glanced at it as he cut his meat. "Most people are happy when I make breakfast for them. And you, my friend, look like someone who needs to keep an eye on his blood sugar."

"I'm no friend of yours, Malachai Parker."

"Nope, you are not. What you are," said Kai, talking as he chewed because the man clearly didn't deserve that much regard and the food really tasted that good, "is a grubby old timer, who licked the wrong boots and is now too busy licking his wounds to hear the sharks that've seen blood."

"Sharks?" barked Lang. "More like wolves. The wolves that you've let into our coven."

Yeah, someone like Lang would think that, Kai thought, giving him a mocking look. Old-school, and bigoted, the type of warlock that rose high during his father's watch. Kai remembered him from way back when. He had been close enough to Joshua and Micah that he had been a regular fixture in their house, and there was talk of him becoming the next Western chief after the old one passed on.

His closeness to Kai's parents had also given him a great deal of confidence in the way he treated their oldest son, the potentially next Praetor. Lang had never been overtly offensive, but he had disliked and – Kai also realized in retrospect – he had been afraid of what Kai was and hadn't bothered hiding it.

Now that Kai thought about it, he was certain that Lang had been one of the Envoys present on May 10, 1994.

That really should have been his first clue that Jo had planned to screw him over.

But that was two decades ago. Now Kai was Praetor; and Lang's career as envoy ended after a skirmish with a rival coven had left him impaired. Now he was a fugitive, and a traitor and at Kai's mercy in every possible way.

Now, Joshua Parker was the head of the Council, and supposed to be at peace with – and even in active support of – his son's leadership. But, a nagging voice murmured in Kai's head, Lang's insinuations had hinted the opposite.

Kai eyed the aged ex-Envoy seated across from him, and mentally replayed the words he had overheard the previous day.

 _"He publicly endorses Malachai."_

 _"Publicly."_

What amounted to dirty politics was nothing, common fare in the coven, even in the family. But a twisted alliance with heretics?

"You've dragged the Gemini into dealings with wolves, shapeshifters, banshees and all manner of accursed creatures," Lang was still ranting.

"And all of them far more pleasant company than yours," Kai remarked with a sigh as he swallowed the last of the venison. He looked at his empty plate regretfully. "So, you ready to talk, yet?"

Lang glared at him, in silent mutiny.

Well, Kai could play this game.

"Ever heard of Veritork?" Kai said conversationally.

The stoic look on Lang's face wavered.

Kai smiled. "Ever watched the truth ripped out of someone's skull?"

The blood was slowly leeching out of Lang's face.

"I hear that only very talented Envoys have ever done it properly. Maybe one Praetor back in the 13th century? I never got the training to be one. Obvious reasons. And who knows what's going to be left of that brain of yours if I mix a little siphoning into the casting? There isn't much gray matter there to start with and by the time I'm done…"

"I told you everything I know!" Lang shouted. He was in a sorry state by now, pale and sweating.

"Really?" Kai wondered. "OK, let's try this again. We're going to be on a plane soon to Portland. And while we're on it, we're going to have a long talk. Maybe a change of environment is what you need to loosen your tongue a little. I'll even throw in some complimentary airplane wine, as well. Oh did I forget to mention? We're travelling first class."

He winked at Lang, who just stared at him.

Kai shrugged. "There's no pleasing some people, is there? Well here's the deal. After you spill your guts – and I don't care if you do it by your own free will or if I have to use Veritork, but you _will_ tell me everything, I promise you – you can come along with me and testify to the Council about my father's scheming, any other traitors and all the other stuff you claim you don't know but that I can practically see scurrying behind your eyes."

He waved his fork in the general direction of Lang's face. He might have waved them a little too close to the man's eyes. Might have also created a small illusion that had them flickering against Lang's lashes. Kai grinned at the look of fear on the other man's face. "You can do that, or you can do… not a damn thing else." He let his words trail off menacingly then widened his eyes dramatically, and gasped in mock-surprise. "It's one of those deals where you have to do exactly what I say or I invoke my mega-powerful leadership clot and squeeze out the life from your body. After I tear open your skull, of course."

Lang was ashen by now.

Kai's grin broadened. "So if you're not eating that," he said as he swapped his empty plate for the other man's, "then you'd better get packing. It's a long flight to Portland and you're never leaving there."

"You're throwing me into prison?" Lang said, his belligerent voice almost masking his palpable fear.

"It's all above book, you know. You used to be an Envoy. What's the going sentence for the witch who forswore allegiance to the leader and deserted the coven without due process? We'll start with treason and see where it goes from there."

"Treason?" Lang's laughter sounded like angry barking. "That's what you want to call it? Treason? Too cowardly to call it by the right name?"

"And what name will that be?" Kai asked pleasantly.

"Revenge. That's what you've been up to, haven't you? You and those heretics of yours. Abominations all of you. Taking us out one by one. Will I even make it to Portland or will I have an accident along the way?"

The smile on Kai's face vanished as his fist clenched and the man's throat closed. "Firstly, they are not my heretics," he said, his voice like steel. His hand fell open and the man almost fell, face-forward on the table. He stretched out his hands in time, catching himself.

"Secondly," Kai continued, "if you want to know who's behind the deaths of the other witches in exile, then think about the person that's asked you all to remain in exile and out of the _protection_ of the coven."

Lang opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes were angry, but there was a slyness in there as well.

Kai didn't like it.

"Get out of my sight before I exercise my right to kill you on the spot."

The man didn't need telling twice. Kai finished the venison, relishing every last bite, as his eyes stared sightlessly ahead of him. The kitchen windows faced the back, and all he could see were sparse trees and mountains in the distance. His senses were stretched, and he could feel Lang as he pottered through his room. He almost hoped the man would take a chance and try to escape. Take a chance that when – not if – Kai caught him, he won't murder him on sight.

 _Abominations, all of you._

That was the pesky thing about emotions. Words, of all the most ridiculous things, suddenly had power over you. To make you feel like a King. Or to make you feel like someone had put a knife through you back and abandoned you in a cold hell to rot.

 _This was a mistake._

 _You haven't changed, have you? Deep down inside, you're still the same monster._

 _It was nothing. A moment of … madness. Magic. It meant nothing to me. Except for wishing it never happened…_

The plate in front of him cracked. Kai cursed, his hand waving over it quickly, fixing it back. But the mess of stew was also running into the veins of the wooden table underneath, and spilling onto the floor.

He remembered another meal that had ended in a similarly disastrous way and he felt an invisible hand clamping over his ribs, pressing down on the muscle beneath it.

Damn her. Damn her a thousand times over. And damn him too for not being able to get her out of his heart, out of his head, out from under his skin. He thought he had done well enough that first night in Portland, his veneer of aloofness only cracking towards the end of that tense-filled conversation in the kitchen. But the next day, her words to Alaric were fresh in his head, in his heart and he had been absolutely wrecked by the time she saw him again. And, of course, that was when she had offered herself up oh so completely in Jo's kitchen, and for a moment all he could see were her eyes, her mouth and all he could hear was his own blood roaring through his ears with the sheer _want_ that had flooded him, mingled with the need for revenge.

Even now, Kai still wondered if he hadn't been a fool not to take up the offer that she was oh so easily, oh so foolishly making. Bonnie wanted to sacrifice herself and who was he to refuse her? The old him wouldn't have hesitated, would have delighted in screwing with her head and every other part of her that was on offer. Even the not-so old Kai, the one who was fresh out of the 1903 prison world, would have jumped at the chance to make her pay for daring to manipulate him yet again, to get back at her for hurting him even unknowingly, and let the pieces fall as they might.

But he was neither of those creatures now. It had been a year since he started letting himself sink into the discipline and isolation that came with his position, a year of learning and adapting to the new personality that had metamorphosed from his merge with his brother, a personality that he still wasn't quite sure he understood himself, or could define. Not for the first time Kai wondered – burdened as he was with this damned empathy that managed to both curse him with feelings and curse him with the inability to do _anything_ about them – if Luke hadn't been the victor after all.

Take his father for another example. A year of working side by side hadn't stirred up any affection in Kai for the man but the thought that Joshua Parker was plotting against him left a bitterness in his mouth that tasted like betrayal.

He shivered a little under his light jacket, and it was from more than just his gloomy, despairing thoughts. It was colder than he had expected in this mountain country. What was taking the old man so long? Kai reached out magically to check on Lang, and that was how he caught the edge of it – void-like, _cold_ , familiar and alien all at the same time.

 _Heretic._

In a flash, he was on his feet. In another flash, he was in Lang's room.

Gingerdee was there. He held the old warlock up against the wall with one hand, his fangs out and dripping while his other hand was raised above their heads, spelling out dark magic.

* * *

 _Mystic Falls, Virginia_

Like Gabriel and Victor Briggs, the two old wizards that the heretics had previously murdered, Judith Stewart, the old lady found in the motel the night before Bonnie left Portland – all bore identical injuries leading to death. There were two neat little bite holes in their necks, and, according to the M.E., some degree of blood loss. But not enough, she explained to Bonnie, Matt and Damon, to cause a heart attack-induced death, not even for people this age. Which contradicted what she had written in her autopsy report – an animal attack that led to blood-loss induced shock. But the old M.E. was pushing sixty, had lived in Mystic Falls all her life and was no stranger to the goings on of that town. She was familiar with all three and gave them not only a copy of the autopsy report, but her own unofficial, off-the-record conclusion:

Death by unknown _natural_ causes.

After briefing them, the M.E. then gave Bonnie the usual opportunity to do what Bonnie regarded as one of the most traumatic part of this business – examining the new corpse. Bonnie donned disposable gloves, braced herself, and got down to it, concentrating on being as methodical as possible, even as she was flinching at the total lack of essence that was left within the body.

It only took a few basic spells for Bonnie to confirm what the others had already concluded – old Judith Stewart had definitely been a witch. And that was what made it even more horrifying for Bonnie.

Naturally, anything that was alive, or had been alive, should have some degree of life force, even if it was just an echo of it. It was why power could still be drained from the remains of long-dead witches, from Questiya's blood in the tomb, or the graveyard of a hundred witches. The body of a witch, even the corpse of one, should have been vibrant with life force.

Judith Stewart's body was an empty shell. Like the old wizards before her, nothing was left. The magic suckers had drained every last drop.

After it was over, Bonnie disposed of her gloves, smiled graciously at the M. E., picked up the reports, and signalled the guys that she was good to leave. On their way out, she stopped over at the bathroom on their way out and threw up Stefan's pastries.

She was still shivering as she and Damon drove back in the Camaro. Matt had said his good byes outside the M.E.'s office and headed back to the station.

Damon, in one of his rarely sensitive moments, hadn't said much to her, but when they got out at her building's garage, he gave her shoulder a reassuring rub.

"We'll get them soon, BonBon."

She threw him in a grateful smile.

He walked her all the way to her door, handing her over to his brother at the door. Stefan was apparently still doing guard duty at their flat.

When Damon left, they regarded each other with strained smiles.

"When does your shift end?" Bonnie asked.

Stefan chuckled softly. "In a hurry to get rid of me?"

Bonnie squeezed out a little more smile. "Just figured you needed a break from baby-sitting me." _And last night's tete-a-tete aside, I think we still work best together in small doses. Also, my roommate seems to be avoiding you. Which means she's avoiding our flat._

While in the M.E.'s office, Bonnie had got a message from Caroline saying that she'd be out for most of the day, doing random chores. Now that Bonnie met Stefan in the flat, she knew why.

"Damon will take over tonight at the Lockwood mansion."

Bonnie blinked. "Huh?"

He tilted his head. "You and Caroline are moving out for a few days so that Matt and his deputy friends can vervain paint the flat."

Oh. That.

Bonnie nodded, and started walking to her room.

"Bonnie…"

She halted, turning her head to stare at him.

"About that tattoo…"

Stefan never finished that sentence, his voice trailing off at the look that must have been on her face.

"It suits you," he said finally.

The smile she gave him this time was almost wholehearted. He was learning.

She took another shower, washing away the stink of the dead and unnatural from her skin, then changed in the bathroom to a loose maxi dress that was hanging off the hook on the door.

Which turned out lucky for her, because it would have been very awkward if Bonnie had stepped out in her underwear or less, to meet the black-haired vampire that was hovering over her desk, picking up the Gemini spell-books, examining each of them gingerly in the light through the window, a thoughtful frown on his face.

The sudden, unexpected, _uninvited_ sight of him made her jump. She bit back a yell. _"Damon!"_

He started with alarm, one hand slamming so hard on her desk that she felt the vibration of magic from his lapus lazuli ring.

She marched up to him and tried to grab the book he was still holding on to. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He held on to it, grinning weakly. "Hey, witchy."

"Give that back," she snapped, trying – and failing – again to snatch them back. She folded her arms in exasperation. "Did you forget something?"

"Well, I-"

"Why are you snooping through my stuff?"

His face flickered rapidly through a series of looks too fast for her to understand – and finally settled on a mock-innocent one that was apparently supposed to disarm her.

It didn't.

"Give that here!" she said, and the book flew out of his hands into her own. She placed it carefully on the desk, and then whirled to face him.

He took a wary step back, arms raised high. "Hold your horses, love. I came in to tell you something then I got curious, OK? Wanted to see for myself what you've been up to. Anything good yet?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes, exasperated at him. She sat at her desk. "Between when I left you in the car and now? No. No new brain waves, Damon. Especially if I keep getting distracted." She gave him a pointed look.

He ignored that, waved a hand at the books on the table. "Not much to distract in these, is there? Looks like a whole lot of gibberish to me."

She snickered. "Well, it would, won't it?" She said. "The Gemini are hard-core, Damon. To read their spell-books you're going to need some witch blood in your DNA."

"Paranoid freaks."

She snorted, opening the _Medeis Bestia_ and flipping through it. She paused at a page that carried a creepily familiar looking image, and read the text rapidly, humming softly to herself. Just as she had thought.

She whispered a spell over the page to give the vampire viewing access, and raised it towards Damon. "Look familiar?"

It was the image of a grotesque reptilian creature, its head crowned with four twisted and serrated horns.

He jumped. "Bloody hell!"

"That's your dragon from Christmas, isn't it? The one you guys talked about this morning…?"

"Father Christmas from hell," he said with a low whistle, staring at the page with morbid fascination. "Not the same guy _per se._ Give or take a few horns, a few extra limbs. But close enough, I reckon. He didn't start out looking like this, though. Won't have got away with so many murders if he had."

"OK, firstly, there are many scholars who don't even believe dragons exist because guess what? No one gets close to a dragon and has lived to tell for sure what a dragon even looks like."

"Bonnie–"

"Original shapeshifter? Original animagus? _Demon_? There isn't one definition in this book from about half a dozen different journal excerpts and this is a grimoire from one coven! Imagine how many different covens have tried to explain what a dragon is? The only thing they all agree on is that dragons are _huge_. I'm talking mind-breaking, astronomic proportions. Literally mind-breaking because they possess advanced mind control, and can appear to different things to several people in several places at _once_. Mundanes, witches, supernaturals — we're all vulnerable. Then that's saying nothing about their super strength, ability to do magic, inflict mass scale destruction on entire countries-"

Damon scoffed. "Relax, sweets. I went _mano o mano_ with one of these dupes last year. They're overrated."

"That's the other thing. It's impossible. I didn't want to say anything this morning because I wasn't sure and I didn't want to hash your squee. But I just checked and I'm certain now. You guys _couldn't_ have defeated a Dragon on your own."

He scoffed. "Bonnie, I'd like to think-"

"No, Damon. You just couldn't have. Not without a Guardian."

He stared at her. "A Guardian? Like an Angel?"

"Well, sort of, yes. I mean, if – and it's a big if – then the theory goes that there are Guardian Spirits everywhere that act as Nature's counterbalances to demonic spirits of Dragons. They are immortal creatures, from which all magical bloodlines are culled. Only, you can't really invoke one. They only intervene on your behalf if you are found worthy…" Her voice trailed off as she noticed the glazed look creeping into his eyes.

"It sounds to me like someone is over-compensating for abandoning her friends to live a normal life as a mundane college student."

Bonnie slammed the book shut and folded her arms. "Fine. So how did you defeat your Dragon?"

He shrugged. "We managed. Cut a few deals. Ripped a few hearts. Tortured an Order of satanic monks into giving up some one-time-use-only super weapon and used it to kill Ugly here. The usual."

"That just proves that this _must_ have been the usual run-of-the-mill fey shape-shifter then. Because there are _no_ one-time-use-only super weapons that kill Dragons. Not unless a Guardian is wielding it!"

"So says your witch-geek textbook," he said with a dismissive sneer. "Those who can't do, teach. And what does this have to do with the heretics anyway? You know… our very real-and-present-danger?"

She deflated. "Not much."

"Get your head in the game, love."

She scowled. "It is. I busted my ass all night trying to get us out of this mess. Then Caroline dragged me out of bed before I could throw off my jet lag. Frankly, I'm exhausted so if you only came up here to micro-manage me…?"

"OK, OK." He shook his head ruefully and turned to go.

"Damon?"

He turned back. "What?"

She gave him a disbelieving look. " _What?_ Didn't you have something to tell me?" When he looked puzzled, she shook her head at him. "You know, the reason you were here in the first place? Or did you really just come in here to poke and pry?"

"Oh, yeah. That." His face cleared; then became grave.

Apprehension crawled up her spine. "What is it, Damon?"

He gave her a look that was almost sympathetic. "I got the message after I left you. There were more attacks last night. A co-ed hall at Whitmore. Five died. All mundanes. A friend found them this morning and what he found…" He whistled softly. "It wasn't pretty."

"Oh my god," Bonnie whispered, sadness and anger warring inside her. "They haven't gone after humans in a while."

"Beggars can't be choosers. I guess after trying for you yesterday, they decided to take what they could."

Bonnie felt bile rise up in her throat. She didn't feel guilty. She _didn't_.

But still…

The vampire in her room didn't notice. He had filched another one of the spell-books and was flipping through pages he couldn't read. "With word of the heretics spreading, supernaturals have started giving this place a wide birth. And you're all sticking together like a pack. No breaching the lines here."

" _We_ are sticking together like a pack because we learnt that the hard way," she said softly, her mind still on the deaths. "After Enzo."

He froze at that, his whole body becoming rigid.

Bonnie nearly kicked herself. She hadn't been particularly fond of Enzo – her memories of him were few and they were more bad than good – but his death had given the rest of them a chance and she had been grateful to him for that.

Damon's attitude after Enzo's death hadn't changed much. He had been bitter for about a day, but it seemed at the time, more anger at being 'beaten' by the heretics than loss of his oldest friend. So it was easy to forget just how close Damon had been to the dead vampire.

She guessed he had been mourning his friend in a way, all this while. What a far cry from the man that had been characterized by how obvious and volatile he was with his emotions. These days, he either seemed to keep them very well hidden, or he simply didn't feel things so deeply anymore.

Bonnie wasn't sure which was better.

"Sorry," she muttered now.

"Don't be, BonBon. We've all moved on splendidly since then, haven't we?" He threw her a glance with a smile that had too much teeth.

Bonnie ignored it, unwilling to delve further. Besides, she had other things to worry her. "What were their names?" She asked now.

"The what, love?"

"The names of the dead, Damon. What were their names?"

He shrugged. "No one important."

 _Why am I even surprised?_ She asked herself, glaring at him. "Of course," she snapped. "They were only mundanes."

He looked up then, his eyes wary. Then he shrugged, tried another of his flashy smiles. "Don't start again, BonBon," he said in the bored tones of a man who's had this discussion far too many times.

And he was right. Bonnie dropped it, already tired. "It wasn't that long they were found, right? Caroline and I were on campus this morning and everything was still normal. I guess Matt didn't get the news in time. But I'd have thought the M.E. would have been one of the first called to the scene."

His clumsy fingers dropped her book, and she cursed in the split-second it took for him to grab it before it hit the floor.

"Oops," he cackled.

"Give me that!" she snapped, snatching it.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Butter fingers. Your nagging is making me nervous."

" _My_ nagging?" At that moment, there was a familiar beeping noise from the other side of her room, next to her pillow.

She gave him a "this isn't over yet" glare then rushed to get her phone. With a little shock, she realised that she had not only left it at home earlier, but she hadn't once checked it all day. She blinked at the number of voice messages, missed calls and text messages waiting for her. Most of them, she realized with a gulp, were from Liv Parker.

And a couple of them were from….

"Councilman Douglas Parkinson?" She read out loud.

He was beside her in a flash. "Who?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation that Damon had forgotten so soon. "Asshat from Portland. He…" she read his message quickly. "He got my message. He's in Virginia, and he'll be here this afternoon."

"Good," he said.

That was a surprise. "You're OK with this?"

"Why won't I?" he shot back, moving away.

"Because in Portland, you promised – and I quote – that you'd gift-wrap him and ship him off to the heretics if he ever stepped foot into town."

He didn't look back. "I changed my mind. We need all the help we can get, right? Especially after what happened to you yesterday and then the attack again last night."

Bile rose again in Bonnie's throat. "Yeah," she said, her voice strangled.

"Later, Bon."

She didn't look up as he left. Her eyes had turned inwards, as she remembered the last time she laid eyes on April Young and her unfortunate friend. Blood. Gore. A crumple of ancient looking bodies, wearing incongruously 'hip' clothes. That strange emptiness even in death.

Horror filled her and despite the warmth of the day, she shuddered.

* * *

 _Ranger, Wyoming_

Lang's face was a mask of fright and Kai thought, vaguely, that the man looked like if he was on the verge of a heart attack.

The heretic and the warlock both turned with equally horrified faces, when Kai stepped in, and the distraction was enough for Kai to _motus_ the freakshow across the room.

Lang fell to his knees, choking. Kai rushed to his side, throwing a generic healing spell at the old man as he turned to face the heretic who was already on his feet.

"Kai Parker. What an unexpected delight," said Frederick Parker, Second of His Idiotic Name, or as Kai affectionately nicknamed him:

"Gingerdum. The pleasure should be all mine but didn't I kill you already?"

Frederick's mouth twisted scornfully. "You always did have a peculiar sense of humour. It manifested at the oddest of times. Particularly when we were feeding from you, I recall."

Anger flashed through Kai, burning him up like a torch and he only – barely – managed to hold back from striking with magic.

"You thought I was funny then? You should see me at a Gemini wedding. I have to be present for all of them as Praetor. Give a speech, too. I always try to make it funny, lighten things up. And you know the punchline that always gets them? It's when I re-enact how I lit up your family like a big, heretic bonfire last June. It gets everyone rolling on the floor every single time."

Frederick's face went from scornful to wrathful.

"Whoever thought that witches would find a joke about burning other witches so funny?" Kai mused.

The slicing spell was a doozy, hard, brutal, and fast; and enough to send a lesser witch to the floor in exactly sized slivers. Kai braced himself for it, his hands stretched out and ready to catch it, and when it hit, he absorbed the spell, feeling the charge of it, before he sent it back at the heretic with a little boost.

Frederick wasn't quite ready, dodging instead of absorbing it, and it clipped his shoulder.

Blood and gore sprayed against the wall beside him.

Kai didn't have time to savour drawing first blood. Eyes never leaving his foe, he pulled the old warlock to his feet. "Lang," he hissed. "Run."

The ex-Envoy hesitated, his eyes wavering from Praetor to heretic.

Kai half-turned to shoot the man an incredulous look. "I don't have time for your suspicions, old fool," he snapped, and with a flick of his wrist, Lang vanished.

"That was most impolite," Frederick said mildly. He had recovered somewhat, his shoulder – and arrogance – back intact. "I had not completed the act of murdering him."

"Yes, you and I need to talk about that. Murdering my witches. I think someone is trying to get my attention. Or trying to make me look bad. Or both."

"That statement implies that some degree of effort is required to discredit you. By my comprehension, your reign over the coven is unpopular and precarious."

"You know so much about me, already? I'm touched. Stalker." They were circling around each other now, tense and ready to counter-attack but knowing that whoever struck first put himself at an immediate disadvantage.

It was almost fun, Kai thought giddily. If you skipped over the part where he was going to yank out Frederick's spine via his throat and strangle him with it.

No, on second thoughts, that made it even _more_ fun.

"I consider it of great import to decipher the weaknesses of the ones I am determined to destroy."

That made Kai laugh. "Pretty big words from a guy whose ass I kicked the last time when he came at me with a bigger army. If you ask me, someone here has a death wish." He dropped his voice into a mock whisper. "Hint: it's not me."

Frederick's balled his hand into a fist, magic flashing across his ringed knuckles and Kai grinned.

"The last time," he snarled, "we were insipid enough to put some degree of trust in your worthless person. In return, you broke faith with us. It is a mistake that will never reoccur, you treacherous viper."

"Famous last words. By the way, word of advice? You keep using these expressions – broke faith, treacherous, etc. I do not think they mean what you think they mean."

"You _swore_ to us, siphoners alike to your own nature, victims of a shared prejudice…"

Kai laughed bitterly. "And you were stupid enough to overlook the small fact that you… I dunno… _fed and tortured me for days_ … and totally destroyed whatever bond of siphon-brother-hood we could have had … and fell for that."

The heretic growled.

"But since you've brought up the topic of past encounters, maybe we can discuss the whole 'I killed Gingerdee and Gingerdum a year ago' and yet here you both are, _alive_? Can you run it by me again, how that did _not_ happen the way I remember it? Because clearly my murdering you didn't take."

Frederick glared. "I cannot commence to comprehend what inanity you speak! Your deplorable use of contractions and concocted idioms will send me to the asylum!"

"OK, let me put in smaller words then: How the fuck are you and your bitch sister still alive?"

For the first time, Frederick smiled. "By my admittedly limited grasp of contemporary vocabulary, I understand that there is an appropriate expression for this. I believe it goes thus: 'won't you like to know?'"

And with a small 'pop', he ported.

For a moment, Kai blinked, staring dumbly at the space where the heretic had stood a few minutes ago. Then it hit him. While they had been circling each other, the bastard had turned him around completely. They were now standing in each other's positions – and Frederick hadn't just ported from some random location. He had ported from exactly where Kai had shoved Lang out of the room.

Frederick the heretic had come for Lang, not Kai. And now he had gone after his original target.

With a curse, Kai went after both.

* * *

 _Mystic Falls, Virginia_

Douglas Parkinson stepped into the flat, visibly shuddered at the sight of so many vampires, and muttered a curse under his breath.

"Are these necessary?" he asked Bonnie, his gaze shifting warily from Stefan's calm demeanour, to Caroline's bubbly smile, to Damon's sinister grin, fangs and all.

A few moments ago, Bonnie had been grateful that these three made it. Tyler and Matt were still on duty. Damon had turned up so late, she half-suspected that despite his earlier words, he had considered avoiding the Gemini. She was certain that Caroline had almost bailed to avoid Stefan.

But now, watching the look on Douglas's face, she wondered if she hadn't been better off meeting him with just Stefan instead of three vampires.

Over his shoulder, she glared at Damon until, with a wink at her, he retracted his fangs.

She bit back a sigh, and turned her gaze back to Douglas. "We're all in this together. You are safe with them. I assure you."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say because he bristled at that. "I'm not worried about myself, Ms. Bennett. I seat on the Gemini Council, and before that I served as an Envoy. Believe me when I say I can take care of myself." He frowned at her. "I'm more worried about you. Why do you surround yourself with so many of these _nefaria_?"

The air in the room became frosty.

"What does that mean?" Caroline asked, innocently, smile still bubbly.

From the look on his face, Douglas probably found her ignorance even more offensive than her being a vampire.

"I don't think-" Bonnie placated.

"It means 'Abomination'." It was Stefan that answered in a cold, quiet voice. "That's how vampires are regarded by the Gemini coven."

Caroline's bubbly façade switched to her bitch face in a heartbeat – and unlike Damon, she didn't need fangs to look intimidating.

"Excuse me but these abominations are standing right here."

Douglas opened his mouth – and Bonnie jumped in before another supernatural fight kicked off in her flat. They had only just got out the bloodstains from the carpet.

"Please, let's get this over with quickly. In your messages, you mentioned something about a magical scan? A way of filtering through the scene of the attack for traces or clues?"

"Clues to what?" Damon barked. "It's not exactly a whodunit when we know who did it."

"Damon," Stefan warned.

"What?" his brother retorted. "This is a waste of time. Unless you like being insulted on your own turf, then I guess you're having a rollicking good time then. By the way, I remember saying something about never seeing Asshat's face in my town…"

He was getting to his feet, and Bonnie was already stretching out a hand to immobilize him, when Caroline crept up behind him and snapped his neck.

"Ouch," Stefan deadpanned.

Caroline shrugged.

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, but not before she saw the disgusted look on Douglas Parkinson's face.

His voice was positively frosty. "Shall we proceed?"

Bonnie was feeling a little disgusted herself. So much for Damon's pragmatic, 'we need all the help we can get' attitude that morning. The moment someone had brushed against his enormous ego, he had reverted to his typical brat-mode.

Bonnie had got the names of the five students from Caroline – who had acted surprised that Bonnie knew. Bonnie imagined that there must have been some sort of deal to keep it from her, to make her not feel bad or something since the attack had directly followed the foiled attempt on her. Only one name had sounded vaguely familiar and when Bonnie checked it against the campus directory, she realized that he had been one of those people she used to bump into during her mornings in the old cafeteria.

Gone too soon. For reasons he would never understand.

Bonnie told herself again that she didn't feel guilty.

She _didn't_.

Now, flanked by Caroline and Stefan, Bonnie led the Gemini Councilman to her room, the scene of the attack. The three stood back and watched him cast a complicated series of spells and suddenly the room which was lit up through the open curtains with the afternoon sun, suddenly plunged into darkness, silent except for the sound of his chanting.

Bonnie gasped as her head jolted with a sudden sharp spike, that fizzled into a dull throb.

In a flash Caroline was by her side. "What-?" she started, but her words stopped, when the darkness was suddenly filled with an eerie ghostly light. Bonnie could see her room again, but it was as if she was looking through layers of thick film. And there was a certain oddness about the room – her luggage had returned, unpacked, to the foot of her bed, the spell-books she had carefully concealed in her closet were back on the desk – that confused her until it hit her.

She turned to Caroline, and registered that in contrast to the rest of the room, her friend and the others – Stefan, Douglas – looked vividly normal.

"He's recreated the room as it was yesterday, before the attack." She whispered to Caroline and the words were barely out of her mouth before her own image appeared, sitting at her desk.

"I felt something. Pain in my head. Not an aneurysm, more like a quick migraine," Caroline said. Across the room, Stefan nodded in agreement.

Douglas's chanting stopped. "I'm conjuring the scene, calling up from your memories, both conscious and subconscious, and the lingering auras what happened here. Hence the one side-effect – a slight headache that would soon pass," He turned on his heel. "Come."

"You might have mentioned the side-effects first," Caroline snipped.

He didn't deign to response; grumbling slightly, they followed him out of the room, through the rest of the eerily distorted house, and watched the front door open to let in the fiery-headed heretic. Not for the first time, Bonnie wondered if the Invitation Barrier really didn't work on them because of their hybrid nature, or if they simply siphoned it off.

"Even images you did not directly witness can be recalled, with a powerful enough aura," Douglas continued.

Just looking at the heretic made Bonnie shudder.

Caroline's arm went round her shoulder at once. "She can't hurt you."

"She is just shadows and memory," Douglas added. His gaze turned thoughtful. "I remember this creature from the Second Battle of Mystic Falls."

"I know she can't," Bonnie said in answer to Caroline. "I still feel like kicking her face in."

Caroline chuckled.

"Shhhh," Douglas said prissily. "Your chattering will disturb the casting."

Bonnie and Caroline exchanged identical looks. _Seriously?_ Because he hadn't been worried about his casting when he was giving a running commentary.

So much for her resolve not to call him by the nickname she had given him.

 _Asshat._

But everyone fell silent as they followed the heretic as she made her way through the house. She moved quickly, deliberately towards Bonnie's room in a way that made Bonnie's skin crawl.

When the heretic attacked the Bonnie sitting on the bed, the real Bonnie looked away, disturbed at the scene.

Caroline turned Bonnie's face into her shoulder.

 _"I demand your Expression. Yield it to me or face your demise."_

"Expression magic? You had Expression?" Douglas's voice was sharp, almost accusing.

Bonnie lifted her face from Caroline's shoulder to look at the man. He was standing beside the wall where the image of Bonnie being held up by the fiery heretic was frozen.

"Past tense. I used it up when I drew on it to fight off the heretics in the 1903 prison world."

"When you went to fetch them?" He repeated.

That made her snap to attention. "I didn't fetch the heretics from there, what the hell?"

"Apologies," he said quickly, turning back to the ongoing scene. "The details are not important."

"Of course, they-"

"Shush for a moment, please. I need to observe. The spell can not be repeated."

So Bonnie had to wait, bristling with anger and headache, watching herself be mauled at by the heretic. Watching her and her friends roundly kick ass, too. The concentrated loathing on Georgiana Parker's face as she saw Damon, just before she turned into a human-shaped torch made Bonnie feel slightly better.

Slightly.

When it was over, Douglas did another series of complicated casting, and the darkness descended. Then lifted. The room was back to normal.

Bonnie left Caroline's side to glare down the other witch.

She was smaller, shorter but her fury made him take a step back.

"You and I are going to need to iron out these details of yours. Because we're not going to make much progress working together if your coven suspects that I'm in some conspiracy with the same heretic you _just saw_ try to eat me."

"I never said-"

"Oh, come on," Stefan drawled from where he stood near the door.

Douglas glared at him, obviously infuriated at another vampire speaking out of turn. Then he turned back to Bonnie with a semi-apologetic expression on his face. "Our coven is suspicious of everything and everyone. It is how we have survived this long. Don't take it personally."

If that was supposed to mollify Bonnie, it failed spectacularly. "Too late."

He nodded. "Fair enough." For a moment, they stared each other down. He broke the gaze first, and instead his eyes travelled from the top of her head to the bottom of her shoes.

What the-

He glanced around Bonnie, then actually walked around her, his pale eyes clearly scrutinizing every aspect of her person.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bonnie cried.

"Trying to find…" he murmured absent-mindedly, still walking around her. His hand lifted and she felt the warm stroke of probing magic touch her.

Her right wrist burned.

"Hey!" She yelped.

In a flash Caroline was between her and the Councilman. "She said, 'hey'," Caroline snapped. "Translation: 'back off or I'll define abomination on your face.'"

Douglas sniffed. "Your vampire's threats are not appreciated, or necessary. I was only trying to see what kind of protection or ward you had that prevented the heretic from siphoning you."

"You could have just asked," Bonnie snapped.

He bowed his head. "Of course, my apologies, Ms. Bennett." He paused, expectantly staring at Bonnie.

Bonnie and her friends stared back at him. What now?

"May I know what you used to protect yourself?" He asked, finally.

Bonnie started. Ordinarily, she would have just admitted that she didn't know – had no idea why Georgiana Parker had failed – but he had already raised her hackles and she hesitated. Instinctively, her right arm went behind her. She was wearing long sleeves, precisely to keep her strange band covered, but in her clumsy nervousness, she did precisely what she was trying to avoid and drew his attention to her wrist.

"What is that?" He said at once, trying to turn to catch a glimpse of it. But Caroline kept standing in his way.

If Bonnie had a dollar for every-time Douglas Asshat had sniffed since he stepped into her house, she'd have enough money to get a matching tattoo on her left wrist.

"I felt a surge of magic from there." He pointed vaguely towards Bonnie's right hand, craning his neck around Caroline. "Is that a ...?" Suddenly, his eyes sharpened and he drilled them into Bonnie's face. "Where did you get that from ?"

 _Get_ what _from_? Bonnie felt like screaming. First Tyler. Now Asshat. What the hell had Kai put on her?

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Stefan shift into increased alertness, his eyes also sharp and probing on her.

Great. Just what Bonnie needed from that corner.

"She got it from a tattoo parlour," Caroline snapped. "Can you stop talking to Bonnie like if she's a suspect here? She's the one that was attacked, remember? She came to _your_ stupid coven, remember?"

He glared at her. "Your comments have been noted, vampire. I am done here. I will report my findings to the Council. But before I leave…"

He lifted a hand, blinked hard – and a familiar set of tomes flew right into his hands almost as if from thin air.

Bonnie gasped. The other two vampires tensed at once.

"Excuse you?" Caroline managed to ground out.

"I thought I recognized the Gemini grimoires," Asshat muttered, examining the books.

"Those are-" Bonnie started angrily, then fell silent.

He eyed her sternly. "Borrowed with the authorization of the Council, I presume?"

"Your Council is so jobless that it runs the local library?" Bonnie asked waspishly, not caring that she probably wasn't helping things. Damn it. She should have called Liv back, or texted or something.

 _Damn it!_

"The Council approves the distribution of any part of the Gemini Coven's body of knowledge to parties outside the coven. Where did you get these from?"

Bonnie was silent.

"Never mind. I will find out."

He marched to the door where Stefan stood blocking his way.

Douglas sighed. "Ms. Bennett, kindly tell your vampire to get out of my way."

Stefan merely raised an eyebrow. Then he looked over the man's shoulder at Bonnie.

Bonnie shrugged helplessly.

Stefan stepped aside. With one last sniff of disapproval, Douglas Asshat, Councilman of the Gemini Coven, was gone. Along with Liv's spell-books and probably the last foundations of Bonnie's shaky standing with the Gemini.

Everyone looked at everyone else when the door slammed.

"What the heck just happened?"

* * *

 _Ranger, Wyoming._

 _How the heck did I let this happen?_

Kai was too late.

The heretic was already fangs deep in Lang's throat, and the old warlock was twitching, as his life was drained out of him.

Cold fury rushed through Kai and he let his rage out in a combined _vatos_ and _motus_. It sent the heretic flying through the cabin, loose furniture and objects flying with him in small explosions that propelled him from the end of the cabin, through the wall and out.

Kai didn't give chase to finish him off, but rather he rushed to Lang, grabbed the old man with both hands and ported them out of the cabin.

They landed in the middle of the motel room that Kai had rented for his brief stay in Wyoming.

Lang slid onto the floor, his limbs cold and flopping, but the gushing blood that rapidly soaked through the dirty motel carpet meant he was still alive. Kai fixed that quickly, staunching the flow, then he leaned over the man, pressing his hands on his chest as he drew on everything he had to force the life to stay in it.

Lang's eyes had been shut all this while, and now they flew open, and stared at Kai intensely.

He shook his head. "Too… late…"

"Don't you dare die on me, you old bastard," Kai muttered, and he sent a bolt of power that must have felt like an electrocution through the man's heart.

Lang jerked, gasping, and for a moment Kai thought the magic had taken. Then he fell back to the floor, and the wound on his neck re-opened.

"No!" Kai shouted.

Lang's hand found his wrist. "Live…"

"Keep quiet and let me fix you," Kai snapped.

"Too… late… for … me…" Lang managed. He coughed, and blood sprayed on Kai's face. "Betty. Find… Betty."

" _Bethany Stewart_?"

"Help her… tell her… o…" His next words were drowned by the flood of blood that gushed out of his mouth.

"Stop talking," Kai said urgently. "You're making it worse."

Somehow Lang managed to gargle out the next words. "Tell… her… live… We… were wrong. Don't… trust…"

"Don't trust who?"

" _Live_ … you must _…_ "

"I will," Kai said as fervently as he could. "I will live. Tell me. Don't trust who?"

The man shook his head, his eyes desperate. He took a deep shuddering, bubbling breath. "Pa…"

" _Don't trust who_?" Kai yelled, shaking the old man slightly.

But all that came out of Lang's mouth was another gush of blood. Then his eyes turned glassy.

The magic that Kai had been pushing into the old man, recoiled furiously, all but shoving Kai across the room.

Patrice Lang, ex-Envoy, almost-Western Chief, honourably discharged after an injury in the line of duty – was dead.

And with him, his secrets.

* * *

 _Mystic Falls, Virginia_

"Spill it, Damon."

"What?"

"The secret, elaborate scheme you're plotting to get back at Caroline for snapping your neck."

His eyes widened with innocence. "BonBon, I already said it was no big deal."

Her head was pounding and Bonnie almost tore at her hair in frustration. "We don't have time for your pettiness! You'll start something and it will escalate and I have so much more important things to worry about right now. So just snap her neck already and call it even."

"You wound me, Bonnie, with your suspicious mind." He placed his hand over his heart, and she almost used magic to tear it out.

Instead she glared as he smirked away, leaving her frustrated.

At least, Matt, Tyler, and a few of their fellow deputies were here to start vervain-painting the rest of the house, and therefore there were more buffers between the two vampires. At least until they got to the Lockwood Mansion, where she and Caroline were supposed to crash until the work was done.

Where Damon was supposed to take over sentry duty from his brother.

Bonnie groaned. It was bad enough that her non-vampire physiology meant that, unlike Caroline and Stefan who had shrugged it off almost immediately, Bonnie still nursed a headache from Asshat's memory spell. But now this? She did not have time for this! She had luggage to pack, and heretics to murder. If Damon tried anything with Caroline, she'd aneurysm him until he passed out, grab his daylight ring and lock him up in the Lockwood's cellar.

Moments later, she was in her room, almost done packing. Her spell-book was the last thing she packed. After the initial shock, Douglas Asshat's high-handed confiscation of her Gemini reference texts had been more embarrassing than anything else. Thanks to Bonnie's own drive, and maybe the nagging of the Salvatore brothers, she had gleaned as much pertinent information from the Gemini Grimoires as she could do while she had them. Enough that, she had come up with something that – if she said so herself – was a brilliant game plan in their battle against the heretics.

She just needed a few hours to fine tune it before she told the rest.

A few restful hours. And being stuck in a Mansion with Caroline and Damon at the moment was not going to get her that.

She was zipping up her bag, still fighting that headache, when her phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and gulped at Liv Parker's name flashing on the screen.

The phone stopped ringing; Liv was probably leaving her twentieth voicemail in Bonnie's inbox now.

It was the crappiest of the crappiest of crappy bad timing. Bonnie had no idea what to tell Liv. It was bad enough that she had taken the Grimoires without properly asking for them – but to have got them confiscated by a member of her Council?

Bonnie was about to turn off the phone's LED light when it started ringing again – startling her so badly that she tapped it open.

 _Shit!_

"Hello? Bonnie?"

Silence.

"I can hear you breathing, you know."

"Er… Liv. Hi. How are you doing?"

There was silence. Bonnie was just about to quickly end the call – when Liv spoke up. "Can someone say Hallelujah? Bonnie Bennett actually picked up my call."

Bonnie cringed at the clear irritation in the other woman's voice. "Yeah, er… Sorry about that. Been kind of busy. You know, fighting against witch-vampires that your coven refused to help us kill."

"Are you guilt-tripping me, Bonnie, really?"

"A little?"

Liv snorted. "Just tell me my spell-books are safe."

"Yeah. About. That."

" _What?_ "

"Liv, are you sitting down?"

"Am I…" She must have taken the phone away from her mouth to hyperventilate – or curse quietly. When she spoke again, her voice was eerily calm in a way that did not calm Bonnie at all. "Bonnie, where are the Grimoires?"

"It's kind of hard for me to explain over the phone right now," Bonnie said weakly. "Maybe I can call you back?"

"Oh, don't worry about that." On cue, Bonnie heard the doorbell of her apartment ring. "I'm right outside. You and I can have a nice, long, face-to-face chat."

* * *

 _June 2013_

Kai tried to put the long tête-à-tête with his father out of his mind. Joshua Parker thought he was close to figuring out his son's secret but all he had were vague suspicions that would never amount to anything more. The heretics were all dead and gone, and with them the truth.

All the conversation had succeeded in doing was throwing Kai off his game when he had more important things to worry about – like the sauce taking longer than he expected, and the pan of onion rings that he had only just put on the burner.

Then the doorbell rang, for the second time in less than half an hour and his magic spiked, all but jumping out of his skin, and sending flames flaring out of the pan. He put that out with a dishrag and another oath, and paused at the sink, trying to make himself calm down. The bell rang again and all thought of calm flew out of his head as he rushed to door, his hands clenched into tight fists, and his heart jumping fast. Bonnie was going to be here any moment and if Joshua had another barrage of questions for him, pax or not, Kai was going to punch his father in the –

He yanked open the door and his mind seemed to stop working for a few seconds.

Bonnie Bennett stood on his threshold. Dressed in her trademark sinfully short denims, a loose green blouse, and the look on her face indecipherable as she stared up at him.

For a moment, they just regarded each other in silence. Relative silence, that is, since Kai's heart was pounding in his chest as he struggled to get a hold of his magic that had been rushing towards her from the moment she was near, aware of her presence long before his mind had registered it.

Struggling to get a hold of his body, too. That was all too recently, and too intimately acquainted with her own.

She broke their locked gaze first, her eyes glancing slightly towards his ear as a single eyebrow went up.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Kai opened his mouth to say something – what he didn't know – but no sound came out. One dainty eyebrow climbed higher on her smooth forehead and he felt his face flushing. Wordlessly, he stepped to the side, holding the door out wide.

She stepped across the threshold, after throwing a passing glance at him, then turning quickly, her eyes scanning through the house, stopping at the dinner table with the place mats already set.

Not quick enough for him not to see the slightly rosy hue of her cheeks.

It gave him a bit of confidence.

"I'm sorry, dinner isn't quite ready. I-I er had an unexpected visitor earlier."

Bonnie nodded, turning slowly, so that her body was angled just a little towards him. He came to stand beside her, and felt her tense. A few days ago, he would have said for sure that it was with hate, with fear, but now he wasn't so sure.

He wanted to touch her. Badly. He had to curl his hands back into fists to fight the urge. She was right there with her skin, smelling ever so slightly of oranges, her hair long enough now to cover her nape, making him perversely want to lift it up to feel the flesh underneath. Her hands were resting on the chair in front of her, lightly he thought at first, but on closer look, he saw how the skin stretched across her knuckles.

"Dinner," she said, her voice low and Kai bent his head towards her, partly to catch it and partly because he needed an excuse to come closer.

"Yeah," he said, his voice breaking slightly, making him turn red again. "It'll be ready in a few minutes." He recollected himself enough to straighten up, and pull out a chair.

She took it, after a wary glance at him, and he pushed it in. But not before he got a glimpse of more golden skin as her shorts rode up her thigh, or the pink lace of her bra through her wide collar.

The blue flame of the gas burner flared up a little.

Bonnie jumped, startled.

"Sorry," Kai muttered, rushing to the stove, and making a show of turning down the burner. The sauce was done, perfect. Dishing the food gave him something to do.

"Need any help?" She asked.

"N-no," he managed. Even though it was slightly risky, with his pulse jolting erratically, he muttered the spell that sent the plates landing perfectly on the table, as well as the bottle of white wine and even lit up the candles.

He turned to see the look of reluctant admiration on her face. "Nice," she said. "You're gonna have to teach me that one." Then her face twisted but not before his lit up. Because the idea of Bonnie thinking about a future where they hung around each other enough and she trusted him enough for him to teach her magic filled him with glee.

He sat down across from her, watching her as she watched him, then eyed the plate before her warily.

"You're going to love this. The guy on the Food Network listed it as one of his top three most delightful and most difficult meals ever."

She picked up her fork, looking at him through her lashes. "You don't seem worried about the most difficult part."

Kai shrugged, smiling smugly. His own fork stayed on his plate, his eyes on Bonnie as her lips closed around her food. He knew the exact moment the nerves from her taste buds reached her brain. The way her eyes widened, then closed from sheer pleasure. The exhalation of breath that had barely suppressed a small moan.

Under the table, he felt himself tighten and even though his mouth was empty, he swallowed hard.

Whose bright idea was it to have dinner in his house with her? The next hour or so was going to be torture.

She chewed and swallowed with her eyes closed, her shoulders twitching slightly all throughout and when she opened her eyes to see him watching her, her face reddened a little.

"What do you think?" he asked, cool as a cucumber, even managing a little smirk just before he popped his own forkful into his mouth. He hummed happily. Even he had to say so himself, he was damn good.

Bonnie smirked back. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you're a good cook. Your thanksgiving dinner was the nicest I'd had in a long time."

The food in his mouth turned into sand.

Kai stared at her, his heart pounding now for a completely different reason as he stared at the cool anger on her face.

He put down his fork slowly. "I'm surprised you remembered how the meal tasted like. You barely touched your food."

"I had enough to remember. I remember how I kept wishing that I could relax and enjoy it but I couldn't stop feeling that the moment I dropped my guard, you were going to try and stab me in the back." Her lips twisted wryly. "Considering what happened next, that's almost funny."

He felt like if _he_ was the one being stabbed now. "No," he said hoarsely. "No, it's not."

Bonnie shrugged. "I think it is. Two days later, Damon and Elena showed up and I spent the whole day driving across country to meet them. And well, you know how that ended." He felt another knife stab through him. "I kinda knew somehow that they weren't coming back."

She snorted softly, and he bit back a plea to ask her to stop. "But I hung in there for a bit. Hung out in Elena's room for days, told myself it was all that driving that made me feel like I couldn't get out of bed. I finally put myself together long enough to go back to the boarding house. But it was days before I made myself a proper meal."

Her eyes were faraway in her bleak face. "There was one night when I literally woke up from hunger, and I went rifling through the Gilberts' fridge for snacks. And I couldn't stop thinking, of all things, of how I should have finished my thanksgiving dinner when I had the chance. Goodness knows, you gave me more than enough time to."

"Bonnie…" He all but begged.

"In case you're wondering why I'm telling you all this, it's because _I'm_ wondering how the heck you thought it was good idea for you to ask me over for another one of your home-cooked dinners. And how the heck I agreed to this in the first place."

Her words were so calm, so levelled that it was only the sense of her magic flaring that warned him a split-second before she shot out of her chair, and marched towards the door.

Kai had been frozen in his seat all through her narration, but now he was on his feet like a jack-in-the-box and, moving so fast that he must have subconsciously ported, he was between Bonnie and the door a split second before her body slammed into him.

Shock filled her face, her hands hitting his chest to push herself away but he grabbed onto her bare arms, held on for dear life.

"A chance. You promised. Remember?"

Her eyes were too angry, the blood and magic under her veins spiking so violently, that his palms burnt where they gripped her skin, fiery, silky and slippery as she struggled in his grip, but he didn't let go. "This was a mistake."

"No," he said urgently, desperately, speaking so quickly his words fell over each other. "It wasn't. I know I'm new at this emotions thing. But I wasn't being some insensitive jerk when I set this up."

"Let me go, Kai."

"Just listen, OK? I read about this in a book. You can't imagine how many books there are out there for people like me. Or at least, people who were like me. Like I was. I mean… I read this book, and it said this was something we had to do. Redo the bad memories. Take away their power."

Bonnie stopped struggling to stare at him, incredulity streaked across her face. "You read a couples' counselling book for sociopaths? Don't you think that was, I dunno, a hell lot of being presumptuous?"

He squeezed her arms, drawing her nearer, almost reflexively. "I don't know everything, Bonnie… I'm learning. I'm trying to do this right. I'm trying to do right by you."

She shoved at his chest again, but weakly now. "This was a mistake."

"No, it wasn't."

The look she threw at him was tired. "I got carried away. We both did. There's no way this was ever going-"

Kai bent down and kissed her, partly to get her to stop talking before she said something she felt she couldn't take back and partly because he had been burning to do so for the past fifteen minutes, no, the past forty six hours, and eleven minutes and he couldn't hold himself back a second longer.

Bonnie froze in his arms, her body stiff and still as a rod, and for a horrible moment, he thought he had made another mistake. Another bad move. Another thing that _he_ won't be able to take back.

Then her arms slid across his chest to grip his back and she opened her mouth, deepening the kiss as she stepped right into him.

Stars exploded behind his eyes as he groaned, his hands slid up her arms, stroking her neck under her hair, then sliding over the back of her head, holding her in place as their mouths mated desperately. He could feel her small hands on his skin through his shirt, and it wasn't near enough and so he sent it away, feeling her gasp when her small hands now burnt palm-shaped prints into his bare skin.

Her gasp broke the kiss, and he quickly slid his mouth down her throat to see if she still tasted the same, and damn, she did, like everything delicious and intoxicating and when she gasped again, her body arcing into his own as he bent her half over, his hand sliding down her back to grip her ass, slam her hips right into the ache in his groin.

Dimly, he heard the curtains in his room flapping wildly, the overheard lights dimming in and out but only dimly, because he had turned them around so that her back was against the door, lifting her by her ass so that her legs could hook around his waist, all the while without lifting his mouth from her skin.

"Kai," she gasped, her voice so low it thrummed through his bones, and her hand was clutching his hair, keeping his head in place as he pushed down her blouse, his greedy eyes desperate for a proper view of that lace, and his mouth all but watering at the memory of the delicious skin underneath it.

The knock on the door sounded so far away, like something from someone else's bad dream, that it took Bonnie's hand, painfully yanking his head up by his hair and her wild eyes, staring at him, before he heard it.

 _"Kai! I need to speak to you right now."_

 _Joshua._

The murder in his heart must have shown on his face because Bonnie's own face twisted, and before he could blink, she had slipped out of his arms and was standing beside her chair. As he watched, her hands raised up to fix back her hair, she murmured a spell, and he felt the trickle of magic as she 'fixed' her entire appearance. In a split second, her outfit was unruffled, her makeup was unblemished and that wild, flushed look on her face had disappeared.

It killed him a little. He was walking to her, instinctively, without any other thought in his head but to make her look as dishevelled as she did a moment ago, and her hand came up. Her magic held him in place.

"Bonnie…"

"You should see to that."

"Bonnie," he tried again, wanting to explain, to wipe away that split-second that she had looked into his face with fear. But every-time he tried to make a move towards her, his feet froze.

 _"Malachai!"_ Joshua yelled through the door.

"I'm coming, dammit!" Kai yelled.

The knocking ceased.

Bonnie flinched.

It was enough to make someone go mad, Kai thought half-hysterically. The more Joshua angered him, the more it frightened Bonnie; the more she was frightened, the more he felt like sending a wave of magic through that door to implode his father's skull.

"Bonnie," he tried again.

"You really should get that," she said quietly. She turned towards the table, and the spread on it. He had no idea how much time had passed since they both left the table. The glasses had overturned, probably from the force of magic a few moments ago, and the wine stained the cloth, dripping on the floor. But the food still looked warm and tempting and that almost set him off again.

"This will just take a minute," he said finally. "Coven business."

She nodded.

"Don't…" He managed a gasp of laughter. "Don't go anywhere."

She gave him a thin-lipped smile.

He nodded nervously, then went back to the door, and he reached for the knob.

"Kai," she called out.

He turned back at once. "Bonnie?"

She waved a hand in his general direction, her face flushing. "Your shirt." What she actually meant was the lack of one.

Not for the first time, he felt his face flood with embarrassment in front of Bonnie. But it was worth it to see the way her eyes glanced over his chest, then looked away, her skin darkening even further.

He snapped his fingers, and he was in one of his t-shirts.

"And your…" One hand twirled over her face, then pointed at him. "You might want to fix that, too."

He smirked. "Do I?"

She shrugged, still flushing. "I'd prefer it, actually."

Disappointment filled him. "Of course," he said, with bite. She clearly didn't want his father to walk in and get the right impression about what just almost happened between them. He muttered the spell she had used – useful thing that, he had never known it before – and he almost felt his blood cool somewhat. "Satisfied?"

She shrugged again, and looked away.

His jaw was clenching as he yanked open the door to glare into his father's equally furious face.

"Listen, Joshua," Kai started.

"No," his father growled. "You listen, Malachai. I've been in the flat across from yours."

Shock went all the way from the top of Kai's head to the bottom of his shoes.

 _Oh no._

He hadn't had the time to go through that place. Too much had happened since the wedding and he had only barely muttered a simple _Erasorio_ spell the night he had stumbled into his own apartment.

"Joshua…"

"Start talking, Malachai."

Somewhere at the back of Kai's mind had lain the thought that he needed to scour that place magically and ensure that no trace was left of what had been there. But it had been vague, buried under too many other things. It had raised its head a little this afternoon when Joshua had shown up with his questions and suspicions but Kai had something… someone more important to worry about.

Someone who was standing in his kitchen now, listening to every word that was about to be said.

Without a backwards glance, he walked out of his flat, shoving his father into the hallway as he slammed the door shut behind him.

"Get out of my building," he snarled.

"Not until I get to the bottom of this."

"I don't have time for this and you're forgetting that Head Councilman or not, you don't call the shots here."

"You're going to _make_ time, Kai. Or I'm going and then I'm coming back with the Council, and the Elders, and the Envoy chiefs and I'm going _educate_ you on just how much power you think you have."

Magic rushed to his fists and he felt his father's aura flare right back. Kai almost laughed. "You want to duel, _Dad_?"

"I want the truth." If Kai didn't know any better, he could have sworn that laced into the anger in his father's voice, was disappointment. "I _vouched_ for you. I brought the coven to your side. So you'd better start talking about what really happened in 1903 with those heretics, Malachai."

Kai dragged his father into the apartment across his own, cast a muffling spell, and told him everything. He didn't hold anything back. What was the point? Afterwards, he listened to Joshua's scorn. And rage. And accusations. And when it was all over, he left his father to decide his fate and went back to his flat.

Kai knew before he opened the door what he would meet.

The food was cold. The candles had burnt out. The spilled wine was a messy pool on the floor.

And, of course, Bonnie was gone.

* * *

 **Author's Note #1:** Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it! I am thankful for my dear beta, **keenan24** (of "By and Down" - ). I am thankful to everyone who's been reviewing and leaving comments here and tumblr for this story and others. And despite everything, I am thankful for Bonkai. Please don't forget to review and long live Bonkai (in our hearts)!

 **AN #2:** Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's been that long since I posted 100% new chapters on this story. (Although there's lots of new material in most chapters. For example, this chapter was originally 13K words. Now it's 21K+!) Thanks so much to your constant reviews, encouragement, feedback. Please keep them coming because they really meant a lot to me, really inspired me to not give up on this story even though there were times I was sorely tempted to.

* * *

Just a reminder that if fanfiction-net is not letting you leave a signed-in review because you reviewed before, you can always leave one without logging in, and just sign off your name manually so I'll know who it's from. Thank you!

Last but not the least:

 _ **HAPPY BONKAI DAY! (MAY 10TH)!**_


	13. 13

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

* * *

 _June 2013_

Kai had told her an hour, and that was probably how long it took for the heretic magic to seep out of her aura, but by the time Bonnie woke up, the light through the hotel windows told her that it was late evening.

She hummed with relief at the reassuring feel of her magic beating warm under her skin, a bit worse for wear after the ritual, but completely untainted. She tried to flick her wrists and perform a small spell – something practical and useful like drawing the curtains shut – but she couldn't move her hands. That was when she realized that they were trapped by Kai's body, one under his throat, and the other alarming close to his tail bone.

The last coherent thought in her head had been of blood lust so intense that it had obliterated everything else. Somewhere between the fifth and the tenth frenzied bout of feeding, they must have both passed out. Now they lay together on the floor beside the circle of candles and spent power rings, so intertwined that it was hard to tell where she ended and where he began.

His body was large and long, and there was altogether too much of him. But his skin was warm anywhere it touched hers – which was everywhere; and she could feel his magic rumbling against her own. It was wild, ancient, and steady all at once – a surprisingly homogenous mix of ancestral magic, his own volatility and, what she supposed, had been Luke Parker's steadier temperament. Most importantly, it was _Kai's_ , unmistakably. The abnormal magic from the heretics was as completely gone from him as it was from her.

Her first instinct was – surprisingly enough – _not_ to extricate herself from the tangle of limbs and flesh and sticky blood – but to just close her eyes and let real sleep overtake her. That this involved sleeping with someone who she had, barely twenty-four hours earlier, been convinced wanted to murder her or worse – did not seem as important as the weight of complete exhaustion that lay heavy on her. She might have been out for hours by the look of things, but she certainly was far from rested; the rush of hectic, unnatural magic through her system had taken a toll on her.

Kai stirred.

With a jolt, common sense kicked in – _get the hell away from this guy!_ – and she twisted and pushed and rolled until she had unravelled herself from him.

Kai had moaned when she first started trying to get away, so she knew he was awake by the time she was done. He didn't, as she half-feared, try to hold on to her. Neither did he help her. When she finally got free, and crouched on the floor beside him, he was lying on his back, staring up at her.

For a moment, they just watched each other.

"You look horrible," he said at last, in his lilting voice.

"As do you," Bonnie countered. Which was true. She was hard-pressed to remember that the pieces of rags he wore had once been an eye-catching tuxedo. The slashes and stab wound from the night before had healed, she noticed. No doubt, courtesy of the dose of heretic aura that he had consumed. But the tan skin underneath, stretched over muscles that she could swear he hadn't had a few months ago was stained with sweat, blood and soot. His skull…

She touched his hairline; he tensed, his eyes widening, but she ignored that, as her fingers traced the smooth path of ripped hair that ran zigzag across his scalp.

He winced.

"Does it hurt?" Bonnie asked, more fascinated than concerned.

"Not the scar, no," he answered. Gently, he took her wrist and pushed it from his head.

Her hand fell to her side, and she resisted the urge to rub her wrist against her clothes, rub out the burn of his touch. She could feel his eyes heavy on her, and she ignored them, staring instead at her clothes. They weren't torn and shredded like his own – courtesy of her missing out on the battle of the night before – but they were drenched with blood. Her mouth, too, tasted slightly of iron.

"We're a mess. We can't go anywhere looking like this," she muttered, and clambered to her feet.

He stayed on the ground, watching her. "Know any cleaning spells?"

"No," she said, and felt defensive at the way his eyebrows lifted. "My speciality is combat. What about you? Didn't you need domestic magic growing up with a ton of bratty siblings?"

She bit her tongue as soon as she said it but it was too late. His brows fell as did his eyes, but not before she saw the darkness cloud them.

Grief, she recognized with surprise, even though every instinct in her wanted to deny it.

" _Bonnie, believe me, I've changed."_

" _I know. But so have I."_

She hadn't really known, if she were honest with herself. She had still believed it was all part of some long con, some diabolical plan he had cooked up to hoodwink her, his coven, and everyone else. But now…

Now, none of that mattered.

She hadn't been allowed to be physically present in the battle with the heretics – and there was simmering rage at that, but distant like a faraway storm; it would come but not yet. After all, in a way, she had done her own part in the fight. Arguably the most important part, since the entire existence of the coven rode on the continued existence of this one man, who was regarding her with that undecipherable look in his dark eyes.

Bonnie hadn't known that either, before 1903. That and a whole host of other things.

"How does it work?" she asked before she could help herself.

When he gaped, clearly taken aback, she shook her head and started scooting away. "Never mind-"

He reached out and grabbed her. One moment, he was lying on the ground, looking as completely worn out as she felt – the next moment, her back was on the ground as he hovered over her, his fingers wrapped around her arm.

The next moment, he had dropped her arm like if holding it burnt him. It probably did, if the charge that had rocked through Bonnie's body at his grip was anything to go by.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't… Still trying to figure this out."

She just stared at him, her heart pounding; but whether from how suddenly he had moved, how easily he could overpower her, or from that charge, she didn't know.

Whatever she showed on her face made him duck his, his mouth twisting as if with self-deprecation. "You know, the whole human interaction kind of thing. Wanting to understand people now. Wanting people to understand _me_. And at the same time, remembering that no one, least of all you, is obligated to give a damn about me." He chuckled bitterly. "Life was so much easier when I was a simple sociopath."

When she didn't say anything for a long moment, he threw her a quick glance. "Feel free to freak out now."

Bonnie sat up slowly and wrapped her arms around her middle. She didn't freak out. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. "OK then."

Kai eyed her warily. "What?"

"Never 'never mind'. Tell me. How does this whole merge thing work anyway?"

He didn't look pleased or relieved with her question. Instead his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "I thought you didn't believe in the merge. You thought that deep down inside me, I was still the same old me. You know, the guy who plotted to kill his coven for decades. The guy who brought you here so that you won't be in the way when the heretics destroyed them."

If his biting words were supposed to make her feel ashamed, he was wasting his time. Instead, her temper flared and she scoffed. "Your own parents didn't think that the Merge would automatically make you a better person otherwise they won't have tried so hard to have a back-up plan. So excuse the girl who's been on the receiving end of your cruelty for not automatically giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you're waiting for an apology for that, you're going to wait for a very long time."

His jaw ticked, his eyes at once stormy. For a moment they both just glared at each other angrily.

He broke first, looking away, and for a moment, she watched his profile as he swallowed rapidly, visibly trying to get himself under control.

"I'm not asking for an apology," he ground out. "All I've ever wanted was for you to…"

He bit off his words, his face darkening, and he turned away from her.

Bonnie glared at his back, wondering what he was about to say, to lash out at her before he changed his mind. He was visibly strongly with his own temper, his shoulders shaking slightly.

She supposed that was another post-merge change. His anger was hotter, less… refined was the best word. In 1994, his fury had been cold but contained; his eyes chips of malicious ice, not blazing rage. She had only ever seen him truly lose his temper once – that day in the cave she had thrown away her magic, thinking that she had trapped both of them there.

 _What had she been thinking?_

Every other time, even at his most violent, there had always been something _detached_ about him. He had never been angry for its own sake; he had used his anger like he used every other thing or person – a means to an end, that would be discarded promptly once it served its purposes.

But in the short, scattered time Bonnie had spent with him since her return from 1994, he now appeared to be less in perfect control of his emotions. It seemed to take a small thing for her to push him to the edge. Like right now, he not only seemed upset – for apparently, no other than reason than that she had upset him – he struggled with it. He was breathing steadily, his arms tense at his sides, his back muscles rippling with his effort to check himself. He hadn't suffered any injuries on his back but there were traces of white scars over the otherwise smooth muscles. She remembered how warm he had been, when they had been wrapped around each other on the floor. How his muscles had shifted against her body when she had slid out of their blood-stoned cuddle.

She stared harder at his scars. Most were faded and old but there was one that was barely an inch past his spine, thick and angry, relatively new and very familiar.

Her fingers were inches from his skin when her brain caught up with her.

Bonnie snatched her hand back with a thrill of horror. Then she shook her head, trying to literally snap out of her weird mental tangent. She hastily threw her gaze elsewhere – anywhere would be safer – and it landed on the three discarded rings on the floor. She remembered why she had asked the question in the first place.

Why she had ended up spending all day in this room with this man, doing everything in her power to save him.

Because much as she wanted to believe it, she hadn't done this just for the sake of his coven.

The day they returned from 1903 and Kai Parker told her the truth about her birthday, Bonnie had refused to believe him. Until she spoke to Jeremy, she had kept on hoping, with increasing desperation that Kai had been lying, that it was just a part of some grander manipulation that he was plotting.

Then she had spoken to Jeremy and he had confirmed all of Bonnie's worst fears – how Damon had lied and used her, how little her friends had actually done to save her and, the worst of it all, how Kai had almost died saving her life.

After that, the only thing she could process, the one thing she could latch on and deal with was the revelation about Damon. But even after the explosive confrontation with him and Elena, Bonnie had still not been ready to deal with the other, more damning the truth.

The truth that Kai had almost dying to save her life, going on with the spell not once, not twice, but three times, even as the stakes got higher and higher for him. That this sociopath whom she had hated, whom she had taken turns with in a vicious game of violence and betrayal, had probably risked more for her in those few hours in the Salvatore mansion than all her friends had ever done in her entire life.

How much of her nightmares of him taking vengeance against her, her growing conviction that Kai was just bidding his time to get back at her really stemmed from her determination _not_ to confront that truth?

It was so much easier, Bonnie thought with no small bitterness as she turned her gaze back to the man himself, when she just hated him and wanted him dead.

Because now she had run out of excuses – he had saved her last night when he could have easily let a heretic murder her; and he had saved his coven at great cost to himself. And that conversation, that confrontation that she had been mentally running from since they day they both returned from 1903 – had finally caught up with her.

She took a deep breath but before she could speak, he swung back to face her, and cut her off. "We're even. I don't want an apology from you, Bon."

"But you do want something," she said shrewdly.

His face darkened at that, his whole body – and she knew because she could see so much of him – turning red all the way to the tips of his ears.

She felt her own face flush as she realized what she had just said.

"I m-mean," she stammered, "you w-want me… to _understand_ you. You post-merge. What you just said now. I mean."

The corner of his mouth curled up in the tiniest of smirks. "Yes, Bonnie. I want you…" and even though his ears reddened further, he deliberately paused at that point "…to understand me."

There was something like laughter in his eyes – something like a plea, too. Like he was trying to make a joke that he desperately needed her to be amused by. It reminded her of him in the snow, talking about her palms, and how she looked up to see that faux-shy smile on his face as he waited for her to laugh that off.

Only it hadn't been faux at all, had it?

She sighed, got to her feet, and walked away.

Kai's eyes jerked up at her movement, disappointment flashing across his face, and then surprise taking its place when she stopped at the mini-bar by the door.

"I need a drink," she said simply, checking out the contents, "clean clothes will be nice too." She pulled out two cans and tossed him one. He caught it easily. Bonnie tried not to notice how his face was positively glowing as he watched her.

She popped her can, took a long, cold swig, washing out the residual taste of blood from her mouth. "If this is going to be long, then I'm not going to sit on the floor for it."

* * *

 _July 2013_

Matt Donovan had a cubicle-like office, a three by three feet space that was inundated with paperwork, spilling from what was probably a table to the floor. He was hunched over the floor, with a stack on his chair, a fistful in his grip, and only occasionally came up for air to consult something from the pile on the desk.

Apparently, someone was trying to drown the cadet with paperwork.

After waiting for a reasonable length of time and not being noticed, Kai cleared his throat loudly. Then again. Then he waved his hand discreetly and the pile of paper work on the chair slid down to the floor.

He half-expected the man to jump up with an expletive, instead Matt just groaned heavily and sighed.

"You know, I knew you were there all this time," the cadet muttered, staring sadly at the chaos in front of him. "I just needed a few minutes to get down something. What is it about your super-naturals that makes you all so bloody impatient?"

"Shouldn't that be my line?" Kai wondered. "Your generation being into instant gratification and mine being … not?"

Matt sighed again and finally stood up. He was frowning, not screaming with horror and trying to enact violence on Kai. Which, Kai remembered, had also been pretty much his reaction when his then-future brother-in-law Alaric Saltzman had made introductions. Matt had been put in charge of running the groom's – a.k.a. the mundane – side of things for the wedding; Kai was the brother-in-law-to-be and the leader of the coven that Alaric was marrying into. It had, apparently, seemed necessary to Alaric for both men to know each other by name.

"And talking about millenials and the millennium, what happened to Go Paperless? Global warming, saving the trees and all that?"

Matt sighed again. "What do you want, Kai?"

 _Bonnie._

The thought tore through Kai's head, sharply, keenly; and it was all he could do to keep the desperation off his face. It had been four days, fifteen hours, and ten minutes since she vanished after his botched attempt at a romantic dinner date, ruined so spectacularly by his father's unwelcome intrusion. Kai blew up her phone, haunted the Whitmore campus, stalked Mystic Falls, and all her friends, but there was no sign of her. In all those places, she had magically scoured any trace of her that he could have used for a locator spell.

She was avoiding him.

Either his father's interruption had given her the opportunity to make the escape she had been itching to do from the moment she showed up at his door or…

Or, thanks to Joshua, Bonnie had just found the perfect reason to hate him.

Kai had thought that never having a chance with Bonnie Bennett was bad. No, not bad. Horrendous. A fucking Greek tragedy. It had got so bad during that time in Portland when he and Joshua were patching things up – to put it mildly – that he had spent a day in the Archives, looking for any information on love antidotes. Pathetic, really.

But now, he was beginning to realize that he could have lived with that horrendous, hopeless pining. He could have lived with unfulfilled wanting.

Because _this_? Knowing that he _had_ had a chance with her? Knowing what it felt like to fucking _be_ with her – in every sense of the word? And then knowing that he wasn't going to get that feeling back… _ever_? Oh no. No way in hell could he survive this.

He wasn't interested in the niggling thought in the back of his mind that he could survive this because apparently, other people did. At least according to those sappy love songs and corny stories that never used to make any sense to him. Chalk it up to him being an ex-sociopath, on a zero to hundred learning curve in processing human emotions. Chalk it up to his feelings for Bonnie being exacerbated by that or magic or fate or fucking karma.

But he couldn't survive this.

So he refused to believe that he would have to.

Of course, he didn't say any of that out loud to Matt Donovan. Kai had guilted Alaric into giving him Bonnie's schedule but that was the most help he got from any of her friends. He didn't know how much she had told them of … anything. But they all played dumb, seemingly unaware that her relationship with him had moved past 'former enemies who tolerate each other from a safe, preferably umpired distance'. Kai couldn't decide if they genuinely didn't know where she was hiding or why she was hiding; but he certainly knew that they won't have helped him even if they did.

So he wasn't expecting Matt Donovan to get him what he really wanted above everything else. No. What the police cadet was going to get for Kai was closure. He was the end of a loose thread that Kai should have cut ages ago.

On their introduction, Kai had easily placed the man – childhood friend of Bonnie and co from Mystic Falls. The Humanity Quotient of the team. He hadn't raised any flags and Kai hadn't paid him any attention; had barely even registered his presence when he had installed the Ghiacci family into Kai's apartment when the hotels had filled up with Gemini guests and boarding needed to be out-sourced.

But that was before Kai had discovered that this Matt Donovan had been Bonnie's chosen partner-in-crime when she had broken into his apartment in the hours before Jo's wedding.

Not Damon 'My Best Friend is a Vampire Dickhead' Salvatore, nor his equally vampiric girlfriend or anybody from their nest of bloodsuckers. Nor Tyler Lockwood, the werewolf.

Bonnie had chosen the Token Mundane.

Since then, Kai had done his homework on the guy and now he regarded him attentively.

He raised an eyebrow now at the cadet's pointed question. "You don't beat around the bush much, do you?" He looked around for a chair, didn't find one, then waved his hand and conjured a seat.

Matt jumped, and quickly looked around him. "Care to be more discreet?" he hissed. "Most of my mates don't know about this…" He waved his hand, 'this' probably signifying Kai, magic, and the supernatural as a whole.

"Word of advice: Any mundane who lives in this town and doesn't know about 'this'" Kai made an exaggerated imitation of Matt's gesture – "doesn't _want_ to know. They see what they want to see. It's amazing really. A sort of survival instinct, I think. Anyway, you didn't offer."

Matt's frown deepened.

Kai decided to take a page from the guy's book and get to the point. "I want to report a crime."

Matt blinked. Stared.

Kai stared back.

"You want to report a crime?"

"Already said that. Do I need to start ranting about millennials and their abbreviated attention span?"

Matt glowered. "O… K… That would be downstairs at the front de-"

"Break-in and forced entry into my apartment. Sunday the _ of May."

Kai had to give it to the guy. He had an excellent poker face.

"I see." Matt turned to his desk and started shuffling papers.

"Uh-huh. I was away that day, attending my sister's wedding. Hey, weren't you supposed to be in it? What happened?"

Matt cleared his throat. "Had an accident. Needed to go to the hospital."

"Sorry to hear that, man. What kind of accident?"

Matt kept shuffling. "Didn't look where I was going. Walked into a pole."

The guy was either the lousiest liar in the world or he couldn't be bothered to deflect the freaking Gemini leader.

"Aw shucks. Well, glad to see you're back on your feet. Now about that break-in…"

"Here you are, sir," Matt said suddenly. He turned back to Kai with a sheaf of papers. "Just fill in your name and address, and give us as much details as you can. Initial here, here and here. Sign here for permission to conduct a search through your apartment, and here to disclaim the Sheriff's office of any property damage that might occur accidentally during the preliminary search of your apartment."

When Kai stared at him, he elaborated with a smirk. "You know, as part of the investigation? Oh, I almost forgot: sign here for permission for forensics to collect some of your personal items as evidence. You'll be surprised at the clues these small-time crooks leave behind in the, for example, the pantry."

Kai couldn't help it: he laughed out loud. "Touché." He pushed the papers aside.

"Just going by the book, sir."

Kai snorted, tapped his knee with the pen, as he regarded the man sitting across from him. He was torn between amusement and impatience. Forget the pleasantries – he could clamp a hand around this smartass's shoulder, yank him to his apartment and clout the truth out of him, magic optional.

Or he could appreciate the fact that this was one of Bonnie's oldest friends, the one person she chose to accompany her into dangerous territory, and figure out how to use that.

After all, Kai used to be really good at figuring people out and figuring out how to use his knowledge of them to his advantage? It had been a survival technique honed through years of observing and imitating behaviour that had always seemed foreign to him.

Well now that he had all this pesky empathy, wasn't it supposed to make that technique easier?

He thought again about Matt's connection to Bonnie.

It always came back to her, didn't it? He thought with a tinge of bitterness.

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I don't want trouble, Matt. I know you're worried about Bonnie."

The effort it took Kai to say her name so casually was almost worth the flicker of emotion that crossed Matt's face.

A flicker of emotion that immediately raised Kai's hackles. For a moment, he stared hard at the man, wondering…

Then he shook his head, refocused on the task at hand.

"I already know you were both in my apartment that day. I don't have a problem with that. You did what you had to do. But you were also the first people to see the heretics after they got out of the Prison World and there are a hella lot of unanswered questions about the why and how of that. She's not… around so that leaves you."

"But the heretics are dead. What does it ma-"

"You're a cop, aren't you? Then you should know that the case isn't over until all the questions are answered, not whether the bad guys are dead or not. And my biggest question is how they got out in the first place."

Matt cocked his head. "Bonnie left her blood in the snow. They had the Ascendant, they heard her do the spell…"

Kai blinked. OK, so maybe the Token Mundane was not decorative after all.

"Impressive," he admitted as much. "But I was one step ahead of them and I made sure that even with all that, they won't be getting out of the Prison World."

 _I was one step ahead of them, all right. But I really should have been one step ahead of myself._

He winced as the sudden, bitter thought.

Matt was staring. "What do you mean?"

Kai hedged. "Let's just say that as coven leader, I could and I did put a few extra locks in place. The Ascendant, Bennett blood and a pesky spell shouldn't have been enough for the heretics to break out. No offence, but I don't have time to explain the nitty-gritty details to a m…" At Matt's frown, he quickly back-tracked. "I mean, most of this stuff is kinda coven-exclusive, you know? Gemini trademark secrets and all that. No time to clear with the witchy _Consigliere_. Just take my word for it, OK? If you follow me now to my apartment, there's a spell you can help me with to figure out how they did."

The mundane was still clearly unconvinced, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. Kai tried for a friendly grin. "Come on, didn't anyone tell you? I'm one of the good guys now. I grew the beard and everything."

"So you're not going after Bonnie?"

Kai almost laughed again.

 _Is that the real problem here? Well then, you can bet your law enforcement career that I'm going after Bonnie!_

 _Just not the way you're thinking._

But Kai kept that to himself. Or tried to. From the feeling of sudden heat on his face, and Matt's appraising look, he wondered how well a job he did of that.

"No, Matt. I just want to figure out how this happened. Make sure it doesn't happen again." He cleared his throat. "I don't know how much your friends told you about my coven's Prison Worlds, but they were built for some very bad people. It's for all our best interests that we know for certain how these guys engineered their prison break. Make sure it never happens again."

"You mean like you did?" Matt asked, but there was no bite in his voice. He looked thoughtful, considering. Then he shrugged. "Fine. Count me in. I've teamed up with worse for the greater good. What do I do?"

 _Teamed up with_ worse _?_ Kai thought with outrage. Oh, for the glory days of his sociopathy! He'd teach this Pet Mundane a thing or two about Big Bads.

Instead, he could only plaster a smile on his face, and stretch out his hand. "Let's shake on it."

Matt took the proffered hand – and Kai yanked them both out of that dingy cubicle.

* * *

 _June 2014_

"And when Matt came to, he was back in his cubicle, with a bottle of water and two Aspirins on the desk beside him."

Lucy's laugh through the Bluetooth speakers of the car was almost infectious. "Considerate. I think I like this guy."

Almost.

Bonnie scowled. "Or he could have just warned Matt about what the spell could do. Even better, asked his consent before he performed invasive magic on him."

"The _Memorian_ spell is hardly invasive magic, Bonnie. Come on, did Matt suffer any ill effects after taking his pain-killers?"

"'Take drugs from some weirdo who kinda kidnapped me and did juju on me in my sleep? Er… no can do.'" Bonnie repeated Matt's exact words verbatim, deep throat accent and all. Lucy chuckled at that and Bonnie cracked a small grin. "He slept it off. He felt fine the next day."

"My point exactly, Bon. The only reason why that Gemini Councilman's spell hit you so badly was because you're already carrying so much on your shoulders. Whatever happened to staying out of the Mystic Falls Drama? Choosing a major, getting in on the Dean's list, working towards graduating _summa cum laude_ , and all that boring college stuff that's been so important this past year?"

Bonnie sighed. She stared through the windscreen of Matt's police car to the man himself, standing by the hotdog stand and haggling with the vendor. It was a wet Sunday morning, and his image was blurred as the splashes of water ran down the glass. Even with the engine and the heat on, Bonnie felt the chill. She wondered how much of it was from the weather or just her own trepidations.

"This will be the last time, Luce," she said at last.

Lucy snorted. "That's what they always say. Admit it, Bonnie. This is you. Your Hero Complex. Saviour Syndrome. Whatever you want to call it. You can't walk away from a fight."

Bonnie flinched, her cousin's casual throwaway hitting harder than she probably realized.

"I can't walk away from a fight? Really? So what did I do when those werewolves were rampaging through campus? Or when the shapeshifter who was pretending to be a dragon-"

"What? What did you say?"

Bonnie raised an eyebrow, surprised at the sudden urgency in Lucy's voice. "The werewolves-"

"No, Bonnie. The dragon."

Bonnie laughed. "Oh that. Not a dragon, Lucy, I promise you. The gang took it out within weeks of it popping into Mystic Falls. It was either a shapeshifter or some other weirdo type creature that I've never heard about."

"I've never heard of vampires defeating a dragon before…" Lucy said, her voice uncertain.

"And you're not hearing it from me now." Bonnie lifted her head as the car door opened and grinned at the hot cup of coffee that Matt proffered. "Whatever Damon and co took out, that was certainly not a dragon."

Matt gave her a sharp frown at that. He shook his head.

'Sorry but it wasn't,' Bonnie mouthed.

He shook his head fiercely.

Bonnie gave him a 'get over it' shrug in reply; and he glared harder.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. _Whatever._

"Mmm…."

Lucy sounded like if her mind was wandering, and Bonnie pulled her back to the point of the conversation. "So you're certain, right? The _Memorian_ spell won't work without the people that were in the scene in question being physically present _in_ the scene in question?"

"Yep. It recreates the reality from the conscious and sub-conscious memories of those present. And it gives reality – not glamours, not illusions, cloaking too is revealed. But the key ingredient is the memories of the people present. They can be sleeping, unconscious, in a coma, whatever. As long as they are existing in this realm, it's enough. It won't work, for example, if the ghost of a murder victim is haunting the scene of his murder."

"Or if none of the people are present, right?"

"Exactly. So this Asshat dude needed you and the others there – the more, the more detailed, more 'coverage' is the memory – and the Gemini Praetor needed Matt in his apartment to recreate what happened when you and Matt encountered the heretics. There's no way else he'd have known for sure what happened – short of using you, yourself."

Matt, who had been listening to the conversation keenly, sighed heavily. His eyes were sad as he mouthed to Bonnie, 'I'm sorry.'

'What the heck for?' she mouthed back, surprised.

He just sighed again.

"So," Bonnie asked Lucy with a knowing eye on Matt, "if, for example, I were to break into the boardings of a visiting Gemini Councilman and rob him of certain books… Unless he physically drags me – or anyone helping me – back there, there's no way he can do this spell and confirm that I'm the one who stole these books and I dunno, get me thrown into some Gemini Prison World for breaking and entering, theft of sacred text, larceny, etc.?"

"No," Lucy started, then the rest of the question finally sank in. "Wait – what?"

"Nice talking to you, Luce! I'll let you know how it all works out."

"Wait a minute! Bonnie, you are not going to mess with some Gemini Councilman, are you? Bonnie, wait-"

"Oops, I'm entering a tunnel. Line's breaking up! I… can't… hear…"

Bonnie switched off the phone.

Matt burst out laughing. "That was mean."

"That was necessary. You'll be surprised out how petty Lucy can be over me pumping her for information but not advice. Apparently, there's a world of difference" She gave him a triumphant grin and reached for the black bag she had thrown on the floor. "You heard her. Our mission is a Go."

"Still seems like too much trouble just to get some damn books back for Liv. Why can't you just let the Councilman take them back to Portland and leave Liv to deal with her Gemini people? I mean, how bad can it be, Bonnie? You're a good witch, Bonnie. You saved their asses on Jo's wedding. And she's a freaking Parker. Her brother is like their King or something."

Bonnie pressed her lips together, as she retrieved a candle, and a small palm-sized pot of incense. "The Gemini are creepy and weird. What else is new?"

"I don't like them, at all. Any of them. That whole Parker family is sick."

She gave him a look, surprised at his sudden vehemence. "You don't like Liv?"

"Liv is alright. It's the rest I don't care about."

"The rest? Like Jo? Her twins?" Bonnie smiled as she balanced a candle on the dashboard.

"Not them. I mean everyone else…" When she kept staring, he burst out. "Remember when they tortured Luke for trying to help us save Elena and Stefan from the Travellers? Their idea of an election is ritual murder. Come on, Bonnie…"

Her smiled slipped. "Well, I'm the last person to defend the Gemini. Which is all the more reason why I don't need any more enemies there than I can help. And now that Liv's here in Mystic Falls, we can use her help. We can pick her brains some more about the heretics. Jo got back to me about Georgiana Parker. Nothing. Apparently, the Gemini scour out records of any known siphoners from their books – and" - Bonnie clenched her fingers – "the only person who can get any kind of information about the inmates of any of the Gemini Prison Worlds is the Praetor. It's information that is buried under layers and layers of cloaking spells, a lock within a lock within a lock. Praetors don't even pass the information between themselves. Just how to access it if they need to." She sighed.

"So Liv isn't likely to know either," Matt said shrewdly.

Too shrewdly for Bonnie's sake. She glared at him and he raised his hands up. "Well, I'm just saying…"

"She _might_ know. Liv was training to be a Praetor for a very long time. She might have some knowledge that Jo won't."

"Wasn't Jo also trained to be a Praetor? She and her brother were the older twins."

Bonnie shook her head. "No, that's not what happened at all. Jo was never prepared because that would have meant preparing Kai, too; and because of his siphoning, he was never a candidate to lead." It was almost textbook ironic.

"That's shitty even for the Gemini," Matt said simply.

It was. Bonnie had long thought so. But there was no point saying it aloud. Or dwelling on it. So many wrongs, maybes, what-ifs? What was important was the here and now.

And the here and now was preparing the spell to track Douglas Asshatt's whereabouts so that they could break into his apartment and rob him.

"Be careful with that," Matt said, eying the candle.

"Relax, Deputy Donovan," she said with a grin. "Not going to wreck your shiny new police car. Do you let this car see any action at all? Or do you wax it every day?"

He scoffed. "I'll let you know that my machine sees a lot of action."

Bonnie gave him a sharp look but it looked like the innuendo had gone right over his head. Poor Matt, she snickered quietly.

"Talking about seeing action," he said suddenly, "way to misrepresent our run-in with the Dragon Demon Santa."

Bonnie shrugged. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Matt. But whatever that thing was, it wasn't a dragon."

"Who cares what you want to call it? I'm just pissed that you told Lucy that it was 'Damon and the gang' that did all the work when Damon wasn't even there at all! He had to take a sudden trip out of state."

"That's not like Damon," Bonnie said, frowning. "For all his many faults, he's never been one to walk away from a fight."

"Well, considering the fact that he was never in- Speak of the Devil!"

And, Bonnie realized with a muffled scream, the Devil appeared. Or in this case, the Damon, whose wet face was pressed up against her window, eyes bulging as he stared into the car.

After her initial shock, the next thing she felt was pissed. She wound down her glass – he almost fell in – and glared at him. "Excuse you? What the heck are you doing here? We're supposed to rendezvous at Lockwood's in an hour."

He grinned. "Thought you duffers could use some help. Plus, I was bored. Stefan's off sleuthing the campus massacre with Vampire Barbie. Tyler's keeping our visiting Gemini witch very occupied." He winked at Matt. "I take back everything bad I ever said about the wolf. The bloke's got stamina."

What Damon was referring to, in his usual disgusting way, was the fact that Tyler had 'rescued' Bonnie from the confrontation with Liv the day before. He had intercepted the blonde witch in Bonnie's apartment, keeping her there while Bonnie, Caroline and Damon sneaked off to the Lockwood mansion. Later on, Bonnie found out that Tyler and Liv had stayed on at the apartment for hours, with Liv even helping with the vervain painting, speeding it up with magic, then they had ended up in the hotel room she was lodged.

And were still there. Tyler had called in sick at the precinct.

As Damon had put it that morning when they worked out the details of their break-in of Asshat's place, Lockwood was valiantly taking one for the team.

To Bonnie's surprise and disappointment, Matt joined Damon in laughter now. He started saying something undoubtedly disgusting about timberwolves – then fell silent when he caught Bonnie's eye.

"Get lost, Damon," she snapped. "There's a reason why this is a No-Vampires-Allowed mission. Just because I've been inoculated to you lot, you forget that the presence of a vampire anywhere near a seasoned witch is like a beacon of all things dead, vicious and monstrous. Douglas will sense your decaying aura and this heist will be over before it's started."

"You say the sweetest things, love," he retorted. "But I'm one step ahead of you, as always." He flashed his phone at her. She stared at a display from a Map apps. Squinting, she saw a little red dot all the way in the heart of Whitmore. Miles away from here.

"Got a tracker on Douglass whatshisname. He's somewhere in Whitmore, also looking into the campus massacre. So you can stop playing around with candles and locator spells, and let's get this thing done with."

Bonnie gaped at his phone.

"Wow, that's nifty," she said, marvelling at the red dot of magic and technology combined. "What witch helped you do that?"

"Hasn't been seen in this parts for some time now. But I believe he once went by the name of Jobs. Steve Jobs?"

"I've never heard of him. Maybe I'll ask Lucy-" Then it registered, and she glared up at Damon's laughing face. Beside her, Matt – the traitor – was snickering.

"Very funny."

"Find My Phone app, witchy. But you should have seen the look on your face."

Bonnie grabbed her bag, and pushed her door open, getting him straight in the gut. He doubled over, gasping as she stepped out, barely turning her head to them. "Come on, then. We don't have all day."

All this while, the police car was parked across the street from the row of single-bed-and-bath semi-detached bungalows that were rented out as guest houses by one of the downtown realtors. Bonnie stretched out her senses to reaffirm that the house leased by Douglas was empty, then she pried through his boundary words and made quick work of his lock.

She grinned at Matt's awed observation of her breaking-in-and-entering skills. "Not going to arrest me, Officer Donovan?"

He scoffed. "Is it me or did you do that faster than you did the last time, in Kai's apartment?"

Bonnie's grin faded abruptly. "More or less," she muttered, and led the way into the house, the boys following.

The sense of déjà vu was inevitable – breaking into a Gemini wizard's home with Matt at her side, for the purpose of finding, and stealing something that belonged to their coven. It was probably why she didn't so much mind Damon tagging along either. At least, he broke the pattern.

It was a sparsely furnished studio flat. The only other door beside the front door led to a bathroom. Bonnie made her way to the closet and yanked open the doors. She stared hard at the empty space on the floor underneath the clothes.

Either Douglas Asshat travelled very light or his luggage was cloaked.

"Spread out and search for anything that looks like it could be keeping those books. Just please be discreet. The idea is for him not to even notice they're gone."

"Waste of time, love," Damon murmured. "By the time, we're done tearing up this place, there's no way he'll know we weren't here. Unless you've been practising your housecleaning magic?"

Bonnie ignored him, and after a while, he wandered off. Matt hesitated, watching as Bonnie sank cross-legged on the floor and started unpacking some of the contents of her bag.

"Need any help?" he asked.

"No, thanks, Matt. Just keep an eye on Damon. Make sure he doesn't break anything. He hates this guy."

"Obviously, I heard that!" Damon snapped. "And I don't know what you're talking about. I've no quarrel with the bloke."

"Yeah, right. Caroline only needed to snap your neck because you were threatening some _other_ Gemini Councilman."

That shut him up, leaving Bonnie with the much-needed peace and quiet to concentrate.

She stared at the arrangement of candles before her, the careful pattern drawn with quicksilver on the floor, the blueprints to the housing unit that Matt had downloaded via the police servers, and last but not the least – the strand of curling blonde Parker hair that Tyler had smuggled to them that morning.

Once again, the sense of déjà vu assailed her.

The locator spell was tricky, but Bonnie had already factored in the cloaking and after a few false starts, it took hold. Her eye followed the trail of blood on the blue print before her, then she raised her hand to find what it represented in the space around her. She gazed hard at the wall on the side of the room opposite the bed. Just blank wallpaper, not even a painting or some decorative mirror. But the locator spell told her that her books were suspended somewhere on that wall.

Now for the revelation spell.

Bonnie wiped her hands against her trousers, her palms damp with nervousness. After Europe and those wild days and nights with Freya and Nora, Bonnie had taken a long break from magic – not just being involved in supernatural affairs but in her own magic. She had swapped her Grimoire for textbooks and her candles and incense for multi-colored post-its and highlighter pens. But months later, when she had escaped from whispers of the Demon Santa shenanigans in Mystic Falls to the West Coast where Lucy now lived, her cousin had re-awakened Bonnie's love for her own power – reminding her that magic was more than a weapon for others to exploit, and could be … well, fun. Bonnie had spent Christmas practising cool, new spells, honing her craft and she hadn't let up when she returned to Virginia with her new outlook:

Magic was her heritage, not her curse.

Just because she wasn't going to let people use her for her powers – didn't mean that _she_ should ban herself from them. She had a right, heck an obligation, to practise her arts, expand her knowledge and be the best witch she could possibly be.

But still… the revelation spell was wound up with a lot of baggage that Bonnie had left unpacked for a year. She could hardly blame herself for being nervous over it now.

She retraced the quicksilver markings, checking and re-checking that her calibrations limited the spell to only this space, for a few minutes. Nothing beyond the walls of this house would be uncloaked. When she was satisfied, she poised her palm over the blueprint, and slashed it, whispering the wordings of the spell softly.

Only she stumbled over the last phrase and the spell fizzled out – her blood falling upwards to the ceiling, bouncing off it and falling onto the blueprint in a messy splatter.

From across the room, Damon burst out laughing. "Guessing that wasn't meant to do that."

"Bonnie, are you OK?" Matt asked, coming over.

"I'm fine," she said, a beat after she muttered a quick cleansing spell while the botched magic was still potent. She was trying to quickly re-align the quicksilver markings when shadows fell over her.

"Go away, guys," she said with a sigh. "I don't need an audience for this."

Damon promptly plopped down beside her. "And miss out on the witchy-woo fun?"

"It's just a revelation spell," she said quietly.

"Like the one you cast over at…" Matt's voice trailed, his eyes flickering from Bonnie to Damon, clearly at a loss at how much the latter knew.

"Over at what?" Damon asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Bonnie shrugged. "It was a long time ago." But Damon pressed and pressed and Bonnie finally told him about the last time she had casted a revelation spell. She stuck to the bare bones of the story – going to Kai's apartment to find the Ascendant, back when she – thought she – had good reason to suspect him. She didn't mention that she had done the spell recklessly, desperately with no thought to the consequences of uncloaking things that were meant to stay cloaked.

When she finished, she eyed Damon warily, expecting him to pry into all the missing holes of her narrative. Even Matt was looking at her sceptically. Perhaps picking up for the first time that there was more to this story than she had ever told him.

But Damon didn't seem interested in the details surrounding the spell, but the magic itself. "So everything that's hidden? Cloaking spells, illusion spells and the like?" he asked, staring at the quicksilver patterns.

"But only in this room, for a little while. At least, if my configurations are correct. Then the spell ends and whatever was cloaked before goes back to being cloaked. That should give us a few minutes to find these books, swap them with my substitutes" – she tapped her black bag –"and scram."

Damon nodded, looking contemplative. He cracked his knuckles. "The speed trick is where I come in. Get going witchy, we haven't all day." He yanked out his phone, ostensibly to check the time, then he yelped. "Parkinson's on the move."

"What?" Bonnie asked.

Damon was already on his feet. "I'm guessing he's doing the Gemini portal-jumping thingummy thing."

Matt stared. "How's that possible? I thought only the coven leader could do that?"

"The heretics could do that, too," Bonnie said thoughtfully. "It's really a question of power."

The moment she said it, all three of them froze. Then they exchanged glances as the same thought undoubtedly crossed their minds.

Could Douglas Parkinson, Councilman of the Gemini Coven, be working with the heretics?

"No way," Matt breathed.

"Why not?" Damon asked, his eyes shining. Bonnie half-expected his brows to start waggling but they stayed relatively calm. "Corrupt official in league with the heretics, their inside man working on…" He trailed off.

"On what?" Matt insisted. "The heretics haven't even left the Mystic Falls-Whitmore area. For all we know, they're staying clear of Portland and the capital of their creepy coven."

"For all we know," Damon said meaningfully. He started moving. "OK, I'll see what I can do about heading him off. You get that spell cooking, Bonnie."

She was already on it, her hand poised above the blueprint with the knife for slashing in the other hand.

"How're you going to do that if he's portal-jumping?" Matt cried.

But Damon had already left.

Bonnie slashed her hand, and whispered the words of the spell again. This time she got it right.

A light breeze swept through the tightly-sealed apartment, ruffling the blueprint on the floor. Then it stopped.

It was done. Bonnie looked up to the formerly empty wall to point at the huge suitcase now suspended in the middle of the wallspace.

"How much time do we have?" Matt asked, grabbing a chair and pushing it up against the wall.

"Five minutes. Give or take ten?" Bonnie replied as she started gathering her things and stuffing them into her bag.

"Seriously?" he grunted, stretching to reach the top zipper of the suitcase.

"Sorry. I've not got much practice on this spell. Just hurry, Matt. This guy is portal jumping towards us as we speak."

"No pressure," he snorted as he finally yanked the zipper open. An assortment of clothes, books, loose pages and candles fell out.

Bonnie yelped, shifting out of the path of the downfall. Then her yelp turned to a cry of triumph as she spotted the Grimoires and dived for them. She muttered a quick spell to send the rest of the stuff floating at Matt. She was distracted, hurriedly grabbing the books and trying to catch some of the loose leaves that had gone up with the spell, while overly conscious of the little time they had. So she couldn't help it if instead of the items floating in a dignified manner, they rose haphazardly towards Matt. Some hit him in the face and he swore.

"Sorry," she cried again, glancing up at him quickly – then pausing when she saw the outline of the luggage shimmering. "The spell is ending. Quickly."

He had just stuffed in the last item, and yanked the zipper shut when the suitcase vanished before their eyes. The revelation spell was completed.

"Come on," she said, heart pounding as they gathered up her things into her bag. She swung it over her shoulder, and reached the door but had to stand there waiting and fidgeting as Matt put the chair back in the exact spot he had moved it from. He reached her, then he turned around to glance through the room for anything they had left out of place.

"Woah," he muttered and to Bonnie's dismay, he rushed back into the room to grab a loose brown parchment that was floating in the air. "From the Grimoires?" he asked, turning it over.

"No time to check. Just grab it and let's go," she said impatiently.

Her heartrate didn't return to normal until they were across the street, and moving towards the car.

"Mission accomplished, right?" she said, shooting a grin in Matt's direction.

He grinned back and reached over to give her a hi-five. "I'm walking out of here on my own two feet, at least. That's a nice change." He glanced up and down the street just before getting into the car. "He's nowhere in sight. We could have given ourselves a few more minutes to do a proper look-over."

Bonnie closed her door and strapped in. "Well, even if he suspects something, he won't be able to prove it. But if we're lucky he won't notice the books were taken until he's in Portland."

Matt started the car and she pulled out the particular tome she was most eager to check through. As he drove, he asked if they needed to call Damon, and let him know they got out fine.

"A text will be faster. Then we'll call Tyler, and arrange a meet with Liv later in the day. Let her know that her precious Grimoires are back."

As he moved the car into the road, Bonnie reached for her phone, and her hand brushed against a loose piece of parchment paper. It was the last page that Matt had grabbed from the floor just before they left. She was about to stuff it into one of the tomes when a line on the paper caught her eye.

She paused to read down the list.

"Matt," she said slowly. "What was the name of the old witch that died while I was in Portland? The one whose body we went to the M. E. to see yesterday?"

"Er…" he frowned. "Stewart, I think? Julie Stewart."

" _Judith_ Stewart," Bonnie corrected quietly. "And the old wizards? The married couple? The ones who died almost a month ago?" When Matt frowned, struggling to remember, Bonnie added. "They moved into the house next to my Grams. Weren't they called Briggs?"

When he still looked puzzled, she glanced at the digital display on his dashboard. "Matt, your onboard computer is hooked up to the police database right?" When he nodded, she went on, "Let's try and run some names through that database right now."

He glanced from the windshield to stare at the paper in her hand. "What names? What's that?"

"I think… I'm not sure… But I think that this is a Kill List, Matt."

* * *

 _July 2013_

"Am I still on your shit list? And if I am, can you just take me off it for an hour or two? Because I really need a friend."

Bonnie had had late classes and returned to her dorm with a pile of work. Ever since – everything – she had been trying to swamp herself with activity as much as possible. Inundate her heart and soul with disciplined academic grunt work. Anything to keep her mind off the storm that was her emotional life right now.

On the more practical side, she had missed so many credits that year that she genuinely needed the extra work to make up for it. Not signing up for summer classes hadn't been optional. But now she had an extra reason to be thankful she had.

The last thing she needed was to deal with Damon Salvatore. But there he was, sitting at the edge of Elena's bed, that mock-innocent expression on his face that he adapted when he wanted to worm something from her that he knew she won't ordinarily give.

He was about to waste his time and hers.

There had been a pile of flyers in front of her door, some about still-open summer classes and party invites, but most were about the upcoming construction work that was going to affect her dorm. Damon had picked up one of those flyers and he now waved it at her like a white flag.

"Bad news, BonBon," he said with fake earnestness. "Looks like the Suits that bought this place finally clued in that this dorm room of yours is larger than most people's homes. Bye-bye vaulted ceilings and multiple light fixtures. Wanna bet the rent will stay the same?" His eyes popped with exaggerated outrage.

Bonnie left the door wide open and stood by it, arms folded.

With a dramatic sigh, Damon dropped the flyer and the act. "I'm sorry, Bonnie, OK? Lying about your birthday… tricking you into releasing my mother… We were buddies and that was not cool."

"Too little, too late," she bit out.

His eyes narrowed. "So it's too little too late for me but for Kai Parker…" Something dark and dangerous must have flashed across her face because he backed off, throwing up his hands in a peace-offering. "Look, BonBon, I promise I didn't come here to fight. I just wanted to know if you've seen Elena?"

For a moment, she considered not answering him, on the sheer principle of not wanting to help Damon Salvatore with anything whatsoever.

"I haven't seen her since just after the wedding," she said finally. The sooner he got what he wanted, the sooner he'd leave. "She sent me a text once that she was OK and not to worry." Which was almost funny because Bonnie had not even given Elena's absence a thought until then, assuming that she was in Mystic Falls with Damon. That is, when Bonnie thought of Elena at all. She had her own problems to deal with.

He frowned, clearly not happy with Bonnie's answer.

"You can leave now," Bonnie prompted helpfully.

He didn't look like if he was about to. "So she hasn't mentioned anything about me? About us?" When she shook her head exasperatedly, something like genuine pain flickered across his face. "What's going on, Bonnie? She freaked out when I told her I was going to take the Cure with her. She ignored every attempt I made to talk about it, and instead went to Jo's bachelorette. Which… OK, I went to Alaric's stag party, too. So I figured she needed a while to think about our options. I was expecting her to take the Cure after the Wedding at least but then the next day, she had taken the Cure already! So I thought OK, I'm going to take the Cure from her but we never really got a chance to talk at the Wedding, what with heretics crashing the party and all and then… since then…" He seemed to struggle to find the words.

Bonnie sighed. "Look, Damon. I don't want to get involved-"

"You're her friend. Are you telling me that you haven't noticed she's changed? Haven't noticed she's not been herself since she took the Cure?"

"I might have seen Elena" – Bonnie raised three fingers – "so many times since that happened. Damon, I have my own crap to deal with. I really need you to leave right now."

"My brother's gone, too," he said, his face growing dark. "Took me a while to notice it. I thought he was with Caroline, doing the post-humanity-off mutual flagellation thing for change – instead of the usual solo-flagellation thing he's perfected over the decades. Then I found out that Enzo's the one babysitting Vampire Barbie and Stefan was just… gone. I don't suppose Elena mentioned that to you, did she? That she's _with_ Stefan?"

"No," Bonnie said automatically. She hadn't been aware of anything Damon just said. So this was what happened when you had your own personal melodrama to deal with? You got so self-involved, you were oblivious to the physical and emotional whereabouts of your friends.

Wow. It almost put things in perspective.

"You'd tell me if you knew right? If she said anything to you? You won't hold back for my sake?"

Bonnie laughed – she couldn't help it; the incredulity of the situation ripped it out of her. "Why would I care to hold back? To spare your feelings? The feelings of the guy who – gosh, where do I start with the crap you've put me through but let's use the last one – almost strangled me to death for not wanting to help your crazed mother free her deranged family of freaks?"

She could feel the shift in his mood, the way he struggled to keep his face and voice neutral. "But I didn't strangle you to death. Doesn't that count for something?"

When she gasped, he went on. "You know that I let my crazed mom be taken back to her Prison World, right? Handed her over to your boyfriend and everything?" He watched her carefully, something like suspicion in his gaze.

"He's not my boyfriend," Bonnie snapped, her colour rising.

"I'm not judging, BonBon. But I have to say that it's mighty hypocritical of you to hold the whole birthday thing against me but be OK with screwing the guy that stabbed-and-abandoned you back in 1994."

"When I need your opinion, Damon," she said through gritted teeth, "I'll ask for it."

He smirked, and leaned back on the bed with his arms folded under his head. For some strange reason, he looked relieved. "By the by, I saw the guy last night at the Grill and boy, was he a wreck."

She hadn't even known that Kai was still in town. Since their disastrous last meeting, she had assumed he had left to Portland. Now Damon's words made her heart leap. She tried to school her face to be as dispassionate as possible but her surprise and interest must have shown because Damon's smirk widened.

"What did he do _now_ to piss you off, Bonnie? I mean, you had obviously already got over the said stabbing-and-abandoning thing."

"Kai didn't abandon me," Bonnie corrected softly. " _You_ did. As for the rest… I was stupid enough to think you were my friend at a time. So clearly, I have poor judgment. It doesn't only apply to you."

Damon scoffed. "Nope, it just means you can't lord your high-and-judgy self over the rest of us. Can't go around giving your friends sound advice about their love lives since you're just as capable of making bad choices as the rest of us."

So that was where this was going. As always, Damon Salvatore's only interest in other people's lives was to the extent that it affected him.

"If you're trying to imply that I'm somehow involved in turning Elena against you, Damon, then you're wrong and stupid."

"I hope not, for your sake," he said and the mask dropped then, his eyes turning cold and viper-like. "Because if you had helped Lily, she'd have returned the Cure to me and I would have kept it from Elena and everything would be as it was. I'm going to look past that for now, but if I find out that you've done anything else to turn Elena from me…" He smiled unpleasantly as he got up.

She watched him stalk towards her, her magic rushing defensively to her hands. When he was inches from her, he raised his hands and mimed snapping someone's neck.

"For the sake of our 'friendship', Damon," Bonnie whispered softly. "I think you should leave now before I set you on fire."

He tipped an imaginary hat to her. "When you hear from her, tell Elena that she needs to come home."

He didn't need to articulate the 'Or'…

"Get out, Damon. I'm not going to say it again."

He shouldered past her as he left the room.

* * *

 _June 2014_

Tyler nearly knocked her down on his way out of the door.

"Woah!"

"Sorry." He said hastily, righting her then moving quickly to the police car in the driveway, all the while tucking his shirt into his pants. "I… I'm late for my shift. Liv's here, by the way. Hope you've got her stuff?"

"What? S… she's here? You're leaving?" Bonnie didn't even know where to start. "Didn't you get our message? We're trying to hold a meet now. Care and Stephan are on their way."

"Hold it without me!" he yelled as he started the engine. "If I miss this shift, the Chief will fry my ass."

Matt, who had been chuckling under his breath all this while, managed to yell out before the car pulled out. "You've got lipstick on your shirt, dude!"

Tyler hastily checked himself in the rearview mirror. Of course, his shirt was spotless. As the car drove down the winding lane to the mansion gates, he stuck out his hand to give his friend the finger. But there was a wide grin across his face.

Bonnie rolled her eyes as she entered the house. "Glad to know somebody's getting their happy ending," she muttered. Not that she was bitter or anything like that.

Oh, not at all.

Voices led them through the palatial mansion to the state of the art kitchen. There Damon was seated at the island, a bottle of bourbon and a glass in front of him. Bonnie had barely had time to frown her disapproval when Liv's frame popped up from behind the open fridge.

"Good, you're back. Do any of you know how to cook? This fridge is full of booze and chips and I'm starving."

She looked and sounded her usual self. Bonnie was relieved. It might make her a Grinch of sorts, but she didn't think she could have stood being around a cooing lovebird.

"Someone worked herself an appetite," Damon remarked.

"Get bent, Vampire," Liv drawled.

"You mean like Lockwood did you? Hey, is this kitchen table even clean-"

"Hey! Hey!" Bonnie yelled, throwing up her arms before things turned ugly. With these two volatile personalities, it was hard to tell what was playful banter and what was the prelude to a throw-down. She eyed Matt – who had just started chuckling again – balefully. "Save the snark for never, people. We've got things to talk about now."

"Yeah, we do," Damon said with uncharacteristic seriousness. "Where the hell were you guys? Weren't we supposed to meet over an hour ago?"

"We stopped over at the Sheriff's . We couldn't have taken more than a few minutes, Damon."

"You took way lot longer. Next time, give me a heads up when you're changing the plan."

Matt sputtered at that. "Seriously? You're the one who crashed our heist this morning and now you're bitching because we were a few minutes late?"

"When did I…?"

"Your friends were on a heist and you've been sitting around here, slut-shaming me?" Liv murmured, as she took a seat across the vampire.

He glared at her.

"If you were that worried, you should have called, Damon," Bonnie added. She waved her phone at him. "But guess what? You didn't."

"Couldn't find my phone," he grumbled. He snuck her a guilty look. "Actually, that's when I realized you guys were taking too long. I needed you to do a locator spell for it."

Bonnie gaped. "Of all the…"

Liv cleared her throat. "Bonnie, about my Grim-"

Matt intervened. "OK, so the others aren't here yet. But Liv is, and she's the VIP for this so let's just share what we found with her. Right, Bonnie?" He indicated the folder he carried, bulging with files.

Bonnie gave Damon one final side-eye, then sat down next to Liv. The other witch looked startled, then delighted as Bonnie yanked out the Grimoires from her bag.

"Your books. Sorry about… everything."

"By everything, you mean stealing them and then getting caught by Parkinson of all people?" But there was no bite in Liv's voice, just relief.

"Kinda," Bonnie admitted, shamefaced.

Liv grinned. "No problem. That doesn't mean this should ever happen again," she added hastily as she gathered the books. "Found anything useful?"

"So-so," Bonnie said noncommittally. "Look, Liv…"

"Cryptic," Liv said throwing Bonnie an amused look, then glancing over at Damon and Matt. "Your League of Mystic Falls Avengers seems kinda lean. Where is everyone else?"

"Busy doing your coven's work for you," Damon retorted. "You're welcome.

Liv smirked. "Let me guess… you and Doug aren't getting along?" At the faces that Damon and Bonnie made, she burst out laughing. "If you're going to pick and choose who you work with, then you need to either recruit more suckers or at least lure back your retirees. Speaking of which, how is the doppelganger?" Her eyes glinted maliciously at Damon.

Matt shifted impatiently but Bonnie threw Damon a side-eyed glance. The one-time love of Elena's life didn't seem fazed by Liv's probing, shrugging as he filled up his glass. "Some war zone or the other, saving the world one broken leg at a time. At least that's what I heard – third-hand. Ex-boyfriends didn't make Dr. Gilbert's mailing list."

Liv gaped. Unlike the others who had got used to Damon's strange way of coping with Elena's departure, she was clearly dumbfounded at his very convincing disinterest and complete dispassion at the whole topic.

She shook her head slowly. "I never thought I'd see the day…"

"Can we save the romantic gossip for later?" Matt grumbled. "We have something important to ask you." He nudged Bonnie.

Liv and Damon stared at the other two. "Ask me?" she echoed.

"Yes, actually," Bonnie said, a bubble of anticipation rising inside her. "We found this when we went to get the Grimoires." She pulled out the single parchment from her bag and pushed it over at Liv.

The witch stared at the list of names and the blood seemed to leach from her face. "What is this?" she whispered.

Bonnie exchanged a knowing glance with Matt.

"Are any of those names familiar?" he asked, and there was a subtle inflection in his voice that surprised Bonnie. At that moment, it struck her in a way that it never had before that he was a police officer.

"I…"

"Because we checked the police records. Martin Linus. Victor Briggs. Gabriel Briggs - changed his name from O'Sullivan when he got married. Judith Stewart. Patrice Lang. Quentin Ghiacci. Bethany Stewart. All born in Portland roughly around the same time. All…"

"Gemini witches," Bonnie finished.

Liv was still silent.

Matt pressed on. "Records show that six of these people dropped off the grid around the same time last year. They moved out of their usual residences, stopped using their credit cards, switched off their mobiles… They vanished. Until they started showing up, one by one.

"And started dying."

"What's going ..." Damon started and Matt shushed him.

Damon was so surprised at that that he actually stayed silent.

"Did you speak to my brother about this?" Liv asked quietly.

Bonnie's stomach flipped.

"No." Matt answered, speaking up quickly, to Bonnie's silent relief. "You're here; he's there. It seemed sensible to come to you."

Liv looked up then, her forehead furrowed with confusion. "Then how do you…?" She checked herself. Then she spoke again, her voice cautious now. " _What_ do you know?"

Bonnie and Matt exchanged looks again.

"You tell us what you know first," Matt insisted. "Can you confirm that these are Gemini witches?"

Liv answered slowly, thinking over her words. "The Stewarts, of course. I knew the Briggs personally. The others…? Not really. I mean, it's a large coven. I don't know _every_ single witch _._ But you don't grow up as Joshua Parker's daughter, in line to lead, and not learn the last names of the families in your coven. And all these last names are definitely Gemini. So I guess that the answer to your question is: yes, these are probably all Gemini witches." She drew in a long breath. "Now's my turn to ask questions. What is this list for?"

Matt opened the folder and spread out its contents. Print outs of police reports and autopsies covered half of the island. "Out of these seven people, three are missing and four are dead."

"The Briggs. Judith Stewart. But that's three, right? Who's the fourth?"

"Martin Linus died of a heart attack a few years ago."

"Supposedly," Bonnie added.

"While the other three were murdered-"

"-by heretics," Liv completed. She sat back in her chair, her face shuttered. "I see now."

Damon leaned forward, his eyebrows so high that they almost vanished into his hair. "See what? What is-"

Matt cut in. "Look at the order of the names – Linus. Brigs. O'Sullivan. Stewart. Lang. Ghiacci. Stewart. Linus died years ago of natural courses – we think – but he still died first. Victor and Gabriel Briggs were two of the heretics's first kills when they returned. Judith Stewart was murdered while I was in Portland. Her phone is in the evidence locker. Patrice Lang was listed in it as an Emergency contact. He was contacted but he never got back to the Station. That's been days now. I've put out an APB for Ghiacci and Stewart but something tells me that it might already be too…"

"No," Liv said vehemently, her eyes flashing. "If they're taking them out in order, then it's not too late. Maybe the other two are safe. Maybe they-"

"Who's _they_?" Damon demanded impatiently. "Come on guys, you're talking over my head. What the hell is going on?"

Bonnie shifted the parchment to him. "We think this is a Kill List."

" _A what_?"

"There are seven names on that list. All Gemini witches. Four of those people are confirmed dead. _Killed in the exact same order as written on the list_. One might already be. He and the other two have been missing for a year. It can't be a coincidence."

"There are no coincidences," Matt said gravely.

Damon whistled, long and low. "Where did you get this?"

"We found it in Douglas Parkinson's luggage," Bonnie answered. "We thought it was part of the Grimoires but I never saw anything like this in the tomes when I had them, and I combed through those tomes pretty thoroughly."

She gave Liv a piercing look.

For a moment, Liv just blinked back, confused; then she goggled, her eyes almost falling out, as she finally grasped Bonnie's insinuation. "What…? You think… that this… this Kill List is _Doug's_?"

"It was in his luggage," Matt stated, his voice turning even more 'cop'-like.

Liv shook her head, then let out a strangled laugh. "No way. Doug had nothing to do with this. Doug…" She seemed to struggle for words. "Look, Doug and my family go back a long way. Doug was Luke's…" Her voice trailed off as sudden pain flashed across her face. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Hey," Bonnie said softly, putting a hand on Liv's shoulder.

Liv smiled thinly, but her eyes were still closed. She took another deep breath before she opened them. They were shining.

The others looked away.

When she spoke again, Liv's voice was scratchy. "Doug is a bit of a … tool, I know." She cleared her throat and laughed at the same time. "But he's not some… heretic-conspirator slash murderer, OK? I don't vouch for a lot of people but I can vouch for Doug."

"Then what was this list doing in his luggage?"

Liv shrugged. "I don't know. He's here in Virginia to help you guys out. Maybe he found it while he was doing his own snooping. Maybe he wrote it because _he_ 's figured out a pattern to the killings? Or maybe it's just a coincidence? The heretics kill witches and these witches…" She checked herself.

"If there's anything you know and you're keeping from us…" Matt warned.

"Chill!" Liv exclaimed. "I was just figuring out something in my head. OK, I'm not certain about this but a lot of those names are – _I think_ – names of witches who took off when Kai became leader."

Bonnie felt her heart leap.

Liv shrugged again. "That could be _why_ they all seem to have dropped out of the grid for a year. That's around the time since Kai came back. We _all_ went into hiding for a while; could you blame us? We had no idea what Kai was going to do then. But then he and my Dad made nice and Dad convinced us to come back. Most of us did. A bunch didn't. Although…" Her voice slowed as it became thoughtful. "They've been started trickling back. Kai pardoned them. Perhaps," she added, her voice getting strong, "that's why Doug had this list. Maybe they're the names of the witches still in exile."

"He did?" Bonnie asked eagerly. "Kai, I mean. He pardoned the exiles?" She kept her voice as neutral as possible, and ignored the knowing look that Damon threw her before he took a swig from his glass.

Liv was about to answer when Matt interrupted, his voice cold. "Be that as it may, that doesn't explain this list. Why is it written in the order of these deaths? And Martin died years ago, didn't he? Before Kai became leader, right? So he was never part of the group of witches who left in the first place."

Liv threw up her hands in surrender. "Look, I know it looks bad. But believe me, Doug is not guilty. I just don't… I just can't believe it."

"Maybe you don't know your friend as well as you think you know," Matt insisted.

Liv chuckled again. Her voice was certain now, even tinged with amusement. "Douglas Parkinson's _not_ my friend. He's a … pain in the ass… a stickler for the rules… He's the designated wet blanket in any party. He's the last person to get mixed up with _heretics who tried to murder our entire coven_."

"Well, until we can find a good reason for this list, he remains a person of interest in our investigations."

" _What?_ "

Damon guffawed and even Bonnie bit back a laugh.

"Matt, this is not a police investigation," she said, smiling a little.

But Matt's demeanour didn't crack. He gathered the papers strewn on the surface with brisk sternness. "Maybe not officially, but this is Mystic Falls. We mundanes" - he scoffed over the word - "are not as clueless as you'd like to think."

Bonnie blinked. " _We_ … _you_ … Matt, where is this coming from?"

He turned on her with a glare, tension stark on his face and body – and Bonnie was so shocked at that, that she started.

"Matt?" she asked, weakly.

"Easy now, Donovan," Damon said. He sounded mild enough, but his hand around his glass had tightened into a white-knuckled fist.

There was a long tense silence.

Liv broke it.

"I'll speak to Doug."

Everyone rounded on her for that, protesting.

Liv raised her hand for silence. "I won't tell him about the list. Gosh, I'm not an idiot! I'll just feel him out. Drop some names. Fish out where he got that list from, what he knows. None of you can do it because you're all stuck in your theory and won't budge from it. But I know this guy and most importantly, I know my coven. If this is really a kill list, like you said, and if Doug is – in the one-in-a-billion odds of this – is actually involved with it, then this is Gemini coven business, and you guys are officially off the case." She raised her hand higher to ward off another round of protests. "It's one thing for random witches in exile to be killed. That's the whole reason why they shouldn't have been in exile in the first place. We can't protect them when they've cut off from the coven – and I know this sounds cruel – but we _shouldn't_ , either."

Bonnie recoiled at the hardness in Liv's voice. Matt drew in a sharp breath.

Even Damon looked weirded out. "That's cold."

Liv shrugged. "Our strength is in our numbers and when a witch abandons the coven, they weaken the coven. So it teaches everyone else a lesson not to do so."

"You Gemini make me sick," Matt muttered.

"You'd think a mundane like yourself would appreciate what the Gemini do for your kind. Do you think it's a coincidence that the heretics are deliberately trying to keep the number of mundane murders low?"

"You call two massacres and a pair of high-school kids low?" Matt exclaimed.

"It kinda is by Mystic Falls standards," Damon said grudgingly. When Matt glared at him, he pulled a face. "Hey, I'm calling it as it is. It could be worse. It _has_ been worse. Think Ripper Barbie and Ken worse." The vampire appraised the Gemini witch. "Last year, we were in the middle of a crisis when one of your lot called us." He narrated again what he had told Bonnie back in Portland. How the Gemini gave them an ultimatum about the mundane body count in Mystic Falls.

Matt was not impressed. "So as long as we keep our quota count low, you don't get involved? What happened to one life lost being one life too many? Mundane or witch?"

"Because you guys are all white hats, right?" Liv scoffed. "Your scorecard before we showed up wasn't impeccable so stop acting so self-righteous and judgemental about how we run our coven. Besides, it's like I said already: it's one thing for these dead witches to be exiles who were at the wrong place, at the wrong time. It's another thing for some other supernatural, for a _heretic_ , to be specifically targeting them because they are _Gemini_ witches. The way this list is written, the victims being killed in order, of the same age bracket. I'm not sure, but it looks like these are sacrifices for a ritual."

A ritual, Bonnie thought, sharing surprised looks with the two men. That hadn't occurred to her but of course, it made sense. It would be just like – and this thought made her shudder – an Expression triangle.

"What kind of ritual would need seven dead Gemini witches?" she whispered.

Liv shook her head. "I don't know. But if it is one, then this has become coven business. Kai's business."

"Too late," Damon barked. "We came to Portland cap in hand for your help and you turned us down. Now this is our little mystery and we're not sharing. To quote Officer Donovan, you're out of jurisdiction."

"I never said that," Matt interjected.

Damon smirked. "Because I beat you to it."

Liv scoffed as she got to her feet. "Like you're going to have a choice if – and it's a big _IF_ – any of this is true. Look, if you guys don't need anything else, then I'm off. Apparently, I now have a fellow Councilman to interrogate before I leave town tonight. Also, this place has nothing to eat."

She grabbed the Grimoires, her purse hanging from a chair, the parchment -

Matt held on to it. "That stays."

"How am I supposed to remember these names?" Liv asked, irritated.

"Take a picture."

She looked like if she was going to argue, holding onto her edge and matching Matt's glare. It was on the tip of Bonnie's tongue to ask Matt to let go. They had made taken pictures of the parchment already; and Bonnie had scanned it as thoroughly as she could for magical clues and she had found nothing. It was just a piece of parchment. But before Bonnie could speak, Liv shrugged, and pulled out her phone.

That reminded Bonnie. "Hey, Liv. Did any of your ancestors go by the name of Georgiana Parker?"

Liv was bent over the table to focus the camera's lens on the parchment. She paused to consider Bonnie's question. "I guess? I mean, I don't know for sure but the last name fits. Why?"

Bonnie, Matt and Damon exchanged glances over Liv's head. Damon and Matt shook their heads. Their message was clear: _Don't tell her._

Bonnie frowned. _Why not?_

Matt scowled as Damon's eyebrows waggled. _Just don't._

It made zero sense to Bonnie. Even if Liv told Doug the heretic's name, what harm could it do? The heretic herself provided the information. Plus they had asked Jo already. Liv probably already knew this.

Liv had straightened up, paused expectantly. "Well?"

"Nothing," Matt started. "We just thought-"

"That's one of the heretics," Bonnie blurted out. "She introduced herself before she tried to eat me. Between her name and the fact that she looks like a redheaded shorter version of you, we're pretty sure you're related. We asked Jo, but she couldn't find anything because records of siphoners are expunged from your archives, apparently."

"Jo said that?" Liv frowned, biting her lip thoughtfully.

"Did she talk to you about this?"

"No, she didn't." For a moment she seemed to think, and Bonnie waited hopefully, ignoring the sharp, angry looks that Matt threw her way. Damon just rolled his eyes heavenwards.

But Liv shook her head. "Well, she's right, I suppose. I'm quite certain that access to information about past siphoners and prisoners from a Prison World will be the purview of the existing Praetor." Her eyes twinkled a little. "I guess you'll have to talk to-"

"No," Bonnie said sharply. She flushed when Liv peered at her, her eyes twinkling more, but continued. "I'm not. He won't help. He made that quite clear," she finished and even she could hear the bitterness in her voice.

Liv looked like if she was going to say something, then she changed her mind. "Well… in that case, I guess I could ask Doug…"

"No." It was Matt's turn to speak.

Liv sighed. "He's a member of the Council. He's right here. You should actually be sharing information with him…"

"Share intel with the Asshat?" Damon snorted. "Don't make me laugh. Until we say otherwise, keep your lips sealed. From Asshat. From _everyone._ "

Liv's brows rose. "Including my brother?"

"We can't let Parkinson know we suspect him for any reason," Matt said, cutting over what Bonnie was about to say. "The more people in your coven know, the more likely he will find out."

Bonnie pressed her lips together, holding back her own reply.

Liv gasped in exasperation. "This is-"

"Are you deaf, Goldilocks?" Damon barked.

Liv drew herself up, and gave him a frosty glare. In heels, she was tall enough to be almost eyeball to eyeball with the vampire. "Bonnie, Matt. Later," she said without once taking her eyes off Damon. Then she turned to leave.

And drew to a sudden stop as she looked up in irritation at Damon, who had suddenly appeared in her way.

"Seriously? Bonnie, can you ask your pet vampire to move out of the way before I set him on fire?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. What was it about these Gemini and their insistence that Bonnie should have some sort of leash on her vampire friends? First Douglas with Stefan the other day and now Liv with Damon.

It was enough to make a witch wonder if she _should_ be leashing her vampire friends.

"I don't know about that," Matt said, cutting over Bonnie's answer. "You're so sure he's innocent, you'll probably blab to this guy."

Liv sighed. "Are we really going to do this?"

"Let her go, Damon," Bonnie said tiredly.

"Bonnie!" Matt snapped. Damon looked sceptical.

"Damon," Bonnie insisted.

He frowned. Then he shrugged, and slid out of the way.

Without looking back, Liv walked out of the door.

Matt exploded the moment she was gone.

"Seriously, Bonnie? Seriously?"

"Do you honestly think that Liv can't be trusted to keep our secrets?" Bonnie asked. "Or K…Kai if she tells him? They're not brain-washed by their coven. We've seen them go their own way lots of times."

"I can only speak for what I know. And what I know is that the Gemini are not to be trusted."

"Yeah, I know, Matt. You keep going on and on about that."

He pressed his lips firmly together, then grabbed his satchel and started walking away.

Surprised, Bonnie grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Hey!"

His face was red when he turned to her, but he didn't shrug her hand off.

"What's the matter, Matt?" she asked gently, when he did nothing but glare at her.

"Yeah, Donovan," Damon drawled from where he had drifted back to his bourbon. "I wasn't too keen on FauxNoobie going off without giving us a blood oath at least, but since BonBon gave her say-so, I chilled. I think there's something else that's got Detective Gadget all rattled up."

Matt's face reddened further.

"Damon, can you excuse us?" Bonnie asked tiredly.

"And miss the show?" he retorted. Bonnie glared him down. He got up with a shrug. "Donovan's probably going to choke anyway," he snarked as he gathered his bottle and glass and left.

Bonnie turned back to Matt. "OK, Matt. Spit it out. What's going on? What's eating you?"

"Nothing," he muttered.

"Really?" she drawled, crossing her arms. "Because you've been acting off for a while now. Don't think I haven't noticed that the others seem to be in on something about you that I'm not. What's the secret that everyone else in our little group seems to know but me? Did something happen when I was in Portland?" She shook her head, rejecting the thought at once. "No, it couldn't have been then because Damon clearly knows but I don't."

Matt's face was so red now, it looked like it was about to explode. "Did something happen to me in Portland?" he parroted. "How about me asking if something happened to _you_ in Portland?"

"What?"

"Since when did you become such a big Gemini champion, anyway? You've never been a fan of that coven. Now you're defending them left and right!"

"What are you talking about? I haven't-"

"That was a Kill List, Bonnie! Ritual Murder! I don't care what explanations Liv gave for Parkinson. Nothing else makes sense. After Judith Stewart's dead body turned up, I said there was a pattern in all this and I was right! These witches disappeared for a year. The heretics we thought had died returned after a year. Can't you see what that means?"

Bonnie shook her head, more thrown by her usually mild-tempered friend's rage than by his question.

"It means that everything… the deaths of those college kids yesterday… Tyler's cousins… the bank… Enzo… those were just window dressing. That Kill List was what the heretics were after. Those were their targets. Everyone else… The wolves, the vampires, the _mundanes…_ Bonnie, heretics don't like eating mundanes. We're not their first choice of a meal because we don't have the kind of magic juice the rest of you carry. But you know what we're excellent for? Collateral damage."

She couldn't tell which hurt her more – the clear bitterness in his voice or the realization that was dawning on her, too.

"You think the heretics came back to sacrifice those witches. And that everyone else who died was just a cover for the real murders?"

He nodded.

No, Bonnie thought, her mind rebelling against the idea. It couldn't be. April Young and her friend. The students. The bank massacre. All those lives stolen brutally, violently…

… as _window dressing_?

But what did it matter? A murder was a murder was a murder.

 _No, it isn't._

It was one thing for the heretics to be mindless, conscience-less killers who thought they were at the top of their mythical food chain and could kill as they please. It was sick and disgusting but it almost – almost – made some kind of twisted supernatural biological sense.

It was another thing entirely to know that the series of murders, the mayhem, was deliberately staged as a cover for another purpose. They could have just killed their targets, but no, they chose bury them under bodies. People's lives taken for _camouflage_ …

The kitchen door swung open as Stefan and Caroline stepped in, gasping a little as if they had ran all the way there from Whitmore. Considering that they were vampires, Bonnie thought distractedly, that was not impossible.

"We got here as soon as we could. What did we miss?"

* * *

 _Portland, Oregon_

Alaric Saltzman was not one to procrastinate on a decision. After the resolution he had made earlier this Sunday morning, he called his old friends in Mystic Falls first chance he got.

"I did my best, guys but I came up empty. It's the oddest thing - Judith Stewart… I could have sworn I know that person. Or heard that name recently. But at the moment… nothing. Sorry, guys." He paused, thought of the best way to say what came next. "And you know… I know I offered to help but maybe… I'll just sit this one out. Call me an old, retired, has-been badass or anything you like, Damon. But this isn't my life anymore so I'm leaving this to the experts to deal with from now on. You take care of yourself, buddy."

Alaric made a face as he ended the call. He wished he could have spoken to Damon directly. It was a crappy thing to leave in a voice message. But maybe it was for the best. If Damon got on his case, he might be tempted to do something stupid.

The only regret he had was letting Bonnie down. She rarely asked for anything - technically, she hadn't even asked him to look into Judith Stewart. Alaric had offered. And he had come up with zilch.

With a sigh, he pocketed his phone and climbed up the steps. Done with his weekend markings, he wanted to spend time with his family.

He heard Jo's phone ringing as he walked down the hallway. She was either taking a shower or asleep. Whichever, it was an unnerving thing to listen to in a house full of easily cranky little babies. He stepped into their bedroom. His guess hadn't been too far off - Jo was at the dresser, drying her hair. He took a moment to admire his beautiful wife, her strong and sexy body, half of her dark hair wet and shiny while the other half was spread out like a fan under the blast of the dryer. With a grin, he tapped her on the shoulder and handed her her phone. That was when he noticed that the caller was Kai.

Huh, he wondered as he left the room. What was going on with that one? Jo had been complaining about Kai's sudden and mysterious disappearance from Oregon, shortly after Bonnie and Damon had also left. The official word was that the Gemini weren't getting involved with the heretic situation at Mystic Falls. But how much of that was Kai's decision and how much was the Council's? Could Kai have gone rogue? Or had he gone off on something else entirely? Alaric still had his alerts from his online supernatural forums. A lot of it was drivel, but there was always the 10%. After the past year's lull, there was suddenly a lot of chatter. News about brutal murders on the East Coast… old powers re-awakening… old secret societies being reformed… sightings of creatures that were mythical even by supernatural standards…

He stopped at the door of the nursery and chuckled loudly.

He had only just resolved to stay out of Mystic Falls' heretic palava! Yet barely five minutes later, his mind was full of even more morbid scenarios.

 _I need a 12-Step Program. Vampire-Hunters Anonymous or something._

Shaking his head, he stepped through the door.

Rachel was on her mat, trying to touch the portable mobile hanging over her. She turned her head to the side and cooed at her father and he felt his heart melt.

"Hello, sweetheart," he murmured, coming to kneel beside her. He gave her a kiss and she grinned from ear to ear.

"Good afternoon to you, Mr. Saltzman," said Gab from across the room.

She was at the changing area, maneuvering a diaper around a pair of fat legs.

"Hey, Gab," Alaric said with a small sigh. He had given up trying to convince her to call him 'Alaric'.

"Is their mama asleep? 'heard her phone ringing and now, you're here…"

He tried not to bristle. "She's fine. Just wanted to spend some time with my girls."

Gab also had slightly old-fashioned views about child-rearing though and she usually regarded Alaric as the last resort in all things babies. It had bugged him at first - still bugged him, if he were honest. He tried not to take it personally.

He smiled instead at his baby girl, and she rewarded him with a beatific smile of her own that turned his heart a little. He could never get enough of her and her sister. Jo didn't believe him but he could already see their differences in personality. Martha seemed to be the more adventurous of the two – first to hit her physical milestones, always grabbing and touching. Rachel was the more affectionate one, and showed all signs of getting to proper words first.

Moments later, Gab dropped Martha beside her sister. She was very pleased to see Alaric and after chattering excitedly, started rolling towards him. He and Gab burst out laughing.

"She's gonna walk first, I tell you. Too impatient to crawl, that one."

"You think so, too, right?" Alaric asked.

Gab hummed her yes. "Rachel'll be a talker but Martha's gonna be a runner."

"I knew it!" Alaric exclaimed, disproportionately smug. Wait until he told Jo.

Gab hummed again, getting to her feet. She went back to the changing area and started tidying up. Alaric got down on his stomach besides his girls and took turns playing 'this little piggie' with their tiny toes. They squeed with laughter in turn, each one poking her feet at him when she had to wait her turn.

For a while, he and his girls were in a world of their own. All thoughts of Judith Stewarts, and disappointed friends from Virginia had leeched out of his head. He wasn't even aware that Gab was still in the room until the sound of her throat clearing loudly finally pulled him out of his bubble.

He blinked up at her. "Anything, Gab?"

She gave him a long hard stare.

A prickle of alarm hit him and he quickly sat up, glancing at his daughters who were now playing a game of rolling towards each other and laughing and crying in turn. "What… is something wrong with…?"

"Girls are good, Mr. Saltzman."

"Oh." He felt relieved - then confused. "Then… is everything OK?"

She sniffed. "You won't think it to look at me now but I was something of a catch back in the day."

Alaric blinked. "I… believe it," he managed to say to this completely apropos of nothing declaration.

For a moment, she stared hard at him, as if to determine if he was being honest while he stared back, completely befuddled. Whatever was on his face must have satisfied her because she went on. "Dated a guy called Tommy as a kid. Tall, strong, not much of a wizard but definitely a lot of man, if you know what I mean. Sort of like you."

The old lady gave the very married Alaric Saltzman an once-over that was disconcerting enough to make him take a hasty scoot back. "Er…"

"We were all set to make it to the altar, and we would have if not for Judgy Judy. That's what we used to call his sister back then. Bossy, bold, and not as smart as she thought she was. She served as Envoy with Betty Zabini and my brother though he wasn't good enough for her either. Good thing though, considering she wasn't really his type." Gab snorted.

"Gab, I don't think-"

"The Stewart name used to be a big deal once upon a time but they had fallen on hard times. But Judith had big plans. She made her mark as Envoy and everyone paid attention after that. A mere O'Sullivan wasn't good enough for her precious brother anymore so she broke us up. Match-made him with the Zabini girl instead."

Alaric had been thinking of how to extricate himself from the conversation. It wouldn't have been the first time that Gab had started rambling at a tangent apropos of nothing. The old woman was slightly gaga – something that had worried him a lot in the beginning, but that he had got used to, as well.

Then she dropped the name Stewart, all the while staring at him with keen bird-like eyes, and his interruption froze in his mouth. By the time she mentioned Judith, his attention was riveted.

"Tommy died before he hit thirty. Judith helped Betty bring up the boy and they've been inseparable all these years. People call them the Stewart girls, and completely forget that they aren't even really sisters." She swiveled her head, bird-like, around her neck. "When Malachai became leader, they ran like everyone else, but only Betty came back. Is it true that Judith is dead?"

Alaric nodded.

Gab blinked rapidly.

"I'm sorry," he said gently.

"Don't be," Gab snapped. "She was always too smart for her own good. Too ambitious. Knowing her, she got tangled up in something that wasn't any of her business and she finally bit off more than she could chew. She should have listened to her nephew. He had some sense. Tommy's son and his family also came back with Joshua. I hear his little girl was even in the wedding, wasn't she?"

Alaric started shaking his head, about to say that he didn't remember – when he suddenly did.

When Joshua Parker had re-appeared a few days before the wedding, and made peace with his estranged children, he had asked Jo to let four coven children, two girls and two boys, stand in her train, supposedly as a sign of good-will and reconciliation in the coven.

"These are sweet children from good families. I don't want them to be crushed," Jo had said blithely but Alaric suspected that her capitulation had less to do with her concern about the kids and more to do with the fact that her father offered to pay for the wedding.

Jo had surprised Alaric at how quickly she let bygones be bygones.

"He's paying for the wedding," Jo had murmured, as she made some last minute changes to her train that she claimed were absolutely necessary but he suspected was simply because she now had a bigger budget.

"He tried to kill you!" Alaric had reminded her, shocked.

"He's paying for the wedding," Jo had said simply, looking at Alaric as if he was the crazy one.

They had been introduced to him. Four teenagers – two pretty girls, two scrappy boys, all completely forgettable. Heck, some of them might even be students in his high school. But he had been told their names and at the back of the head, those names had stuck.

And now, with Gab's shrewd prompting, they came back.

Alaric gaped at the old woman.

Her beady eyes glinted. "Too bad about Tommy's boy, though. Hell of a way to go. Him and his wife."

He opened his mouth to ask her what she meant by that - when there was a loud explosion from below stairs.

Alaric jumped to his feet, panic slamming through him. It sounded as if a bomb had gone off in his kitchen!

Gab had let out one short, sharp screech, but now she stood frozen, her hands pressed into her face, her blue rings emphasizing the roundness of her eyes. The twins were screaming at the top of their lungs.

Alaric stared at the three of them desperately. Then turned around to stare at the door.

 _Jo_ , he thought, feeling like if he was torn into two. His heart was racing.

He swirled on Gab. "Stay here. Keep them safe…"

She looked frightened. "Mr. Saltzman…"

"You're a witch, aren't you?" he bellowed. "Keep my children safe!"

She swallowed hard, clasped her hands together, then nodded.

With a last desperate look at his babies, he turned on his heel and ran out to find his wife, and what the hell had just happened in his house.

* * *

 _Mystic Falls, Virginia_

"It's a good thing Tyler's not here then," Caroline said softly when Matt and Bonnie finished.

All five sat around the island now. Damon had returned to the kitchen with an empty bottle, and he let the other two do the narration of their findings and conversation with Liv Parker.

"Why?" Matt asked, surprised.

Caroline gave him an _'isn't it obvious?'_ glance. "Because we have to be careful what we tell Liv now. Or any Gemini. And right now, he's the one most connected to them." She carefully did not look at Bonnie as she said this – for which Bonnie was very grateful.

"Liv was right about this being Gemini business," Stefan said. "If their Councilman and heretics are performing ritual murder on their own witches then it definitely falls in their territory and they can take it out of our hands."

"I am not giving this to the Gemini," Damon snapped. "They had their chance to get involved and they blew it. If they want in, they'll come to us and they'll do it on _our_ terms."

Stephan just rolled his eyes at that.

"Stefan, we don't know who else might be involved in this," Caroline pointed out.

"So we take it right to the top," Stefan said. "We speak to Kai Parker."

All eyes landed on Bonnie.

"Why are you all looking at me for?" she exclaimed.

"Bonnie…" Caroline sighed.

"This is no time to be coy," Stefan finished.

Bonnie glared at them with narrowed eyes, not failing to note how in sync they suddenly seemed to be. "What the hell? I wasn't coy when I went to Portland and got turned down flat." _In every sense of the word._ Her face reddened at the memory, but she pushed on. "Maybe one of you guys should give it a whirl. Besides, Liv didn't believe a word against Saint Doug the Asshat. Why would Kai?"

"I agree with Bonnie," Matt added. She nodded gratefully until he added: "and don't forget, there's the chance that Kai might be involved in this."

Bonnie whirled at him. "What?"

"Didn't Liv say that those witches exiled themselves when he became leader? That sounds to me like motive."

The others started looking thoughtful. Which incensed Bonnie more.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Bonnie declared. "Kai doesn't need heretics to kill those witches. If he wanted them dead, he'd do that himself."

Matt whistled. "What a guy, huh?"

"What is _with_ you?" Bonnie cried.

"Hey, guys!" Caroline cried. "Let's not fight, OK? So … can we all agree that we don't tell the Gemini?"

There was a strained silence. Then Stefan, who had been one to suggest it, nodded.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. _Spineless._

Caroline looked relieved. "Great. So we keep on doing what we agreed to do all along. Figure out some way to get rid of these heretics ourselves. That's the most important thing, right? I mean, whatever their reasons for killing people… they're killing people. We have to stop them."

"Sounds good to me," Stefan said at once.

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. Yeah, those two were back to banging each other again.

There was a pause.

"I… I agree with Vampire Barbie," Damon drawled, his brows almost falling off his head as he exaggerated a look of amazement.

Caroline shot him a withering look, before turning to Matt and Bonnie, her face appealing. "Guys?"

"We have to go after the heretics, Douglas Parkinson, and _whoever else_ is involved in this," Matt insisted.

"I'll take a wild guess and say that the heretics might be the hardest kill there," Stefan murmured.

"But-"

"Oh come off it, Donovan!" Damon snapped. "We all know that your suspicions have less to do with the actual evidence and more to do with-"

"Fine!" Matt shouted. "Fine! We do it your way then."

"More to do with what?" Bonnie prompted, watching the way the other three shot knowing glances at each other, the way Matt seemed to cower into his seat. "What exactly am I missing here?"

It wasn't about the collateral damage this time, she was sure of it. There was something else going on with Matt.

Caroline giggled – then smothered it under Bonnie's glare. "Bonnie…"

"What did I say about you guys keeping secrets?"

"It's not..." Stefan began, then stopped and looked pointedly at Matt.

"I have personal beef with Kai Parker, alright!" Matt shouted.

Bonnie started. "What?"

"I hate the guy, OK? I can't stand him."

"Why? Since when?"

Matt sputtered. "Since _when_? Maybe since he stabbed the friend I've known since I was 10 and left her to die in _his_ Prison World-"

"-that's not-"

"-maybe since I heard he was a sociopath who murdered his siblings. Maybe since he totalled my bar that one time he beat up Damon and Enzo-"

Damon looked up. "Wait a minute, that's not what-"

"-maybe since he did a memory spell on me against my consent. I don't know, Bonnie! Maybe I'll have to write a list."

Bonnie gaped at him, thoughts whirling. "Matt," she said slowly, "you don't… you're not…"

"-supposed to take this stuff personally?" he snapped.

"… making sense. You've worked with the bad guys before. We all have. The Mikaelsons? Trip? _Damon_?"

"Hey!"

"Maybe I don't want to keep working with the bad guys anymore," he muttered.

If her jaw dropped any further, it would hit the floor. "Matt, you _dated_ Rebekah Mikaelson. And Nadia Petrova. _At the same time_."

His ears reddened. "How did you… I only told _Tyler_."

"Who told me, who told Bonnie," Caroline sing-sang. "We don't keep secrets in this group, Matt. It's, like, a rule," she rolled her eyes.

There was a tense silence.

Matt chuckled suddenly, his shoulders relaxing. Stefan snickered and then Damon laughed.

"You sound like an idiot, Care," Matt said.

The blonde vampire gave him the finger.

Bonnie smiled uneasily, relieved that the acrimonious tension had dissipated, but still wary that it had risen in the first place.

Matt raised his hands in surrender. "Forget what I said. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Let's do this."

Stefan cleared his throat. "So… back to the matter at hand. We all agree that taking out the heretics is our first priority, right? And we've, for all sorts of reasons, decided to do this on our own?" When everyone nodded, he continued. "So … do we have a plan? Bonnie?"

"You guys are hopeless," she exclaimed, and rose to her feet.

"Bonnie?" Caroline cried, half-standing.

"Stay put, Care. I'm not walking out on you. As much I'd love to do that, but apparently I can't, since you're all going to die approximately twenty-four hours after I do."

"I'll have you know that we managed just fine last year without you-" Damon yelled but his voice vanished when she slammed the kitchen door shut.

In her off-campus flat, a trip to her room from the kitchen would have taken heartbeats. In the Lockwood mansion, where she had to literally go from one wing of the house to the other, it took minutes. It was a good thing she was in such good shape, Bonnie mused, as she made her way back to the kitchen. Although she would miss having someone clean up after her.

As she turned a corner to the kitchen, she slowed, an idea entering her head. She had left the room for minutes, hadn't she? There was no way the others could have resisted talking about her behind her back and whatever it was going on with Matt. Because there _was_ something going on with him and for some reason, she was on the outside of it.

Ordinarily, she'd have respect her friend's privacy. It hurt, but if he chose not to confide in her, that was his call not hers. But heaven knows, her own personal life had suddenly become everyone's business. Why did Matt get to keep secrets? And how many times in the past had the personal got entangled with the political? Matt might think … the _others_ might think that they were keeping harmless little secrets. But what if, unknown to them, there was something more sinister at work?

 _Ok, you're reaching_ , she told herself even as she twirled her fingers towards the door, the words of an eavesdropping spell at the tip of her tongue.

 _Yeah, but I'm still doing it._

And before she could talk herself out of it, she did.

The magic was instantaneous. The voices of her friends suddenly sounded beside her, as clear as if she was in the room right amongst them, and not at the end of the corridor, on the other side of the near-sound-proof door.

"'I can't stand him because he's a Bad Man! He's a Bad Man, Bonnie! Can't you see he's such a Bad, Bad, _Bad_ Man?'" Caroline was saying, her voice deepened in an imitation of Matt's.

"Ex-Bad Man," Stefan corrected mildly.

"Nice save, Donovan," Damon snickered.

"Shut up," Matt muttered.

"Whose bright idea was it to tell Donovan about Bonnie and Harry Parker doing the nasty?" Damon continued.

"I believe that would be you," Stefan deadpanned.

Bonnie felt her face flush. She hadn't ever bothered trying to figure out when and how each member of their group had figured out what happened between her and Kai after Jo's wedding. Truth be told, she tried not to think about what her friends knew about her and Kai. Sometimes, she even kidded herself that they didn't really know _anything._ They might suspect _something_. So it was beyond mortifying to actually hear them talking about it, confirming that yeah, she really had no secrets where these clowns were concerned.

"I can't believe Bonnie ever had anything to do with that tool," Matt growled.

Bonnie felt her spine straighten. _What the hell?_

"Have you seen that tool?" Caroline replied. Beat. Then she and the other vampires burst into laughter at her own unintended innuendo. "Oh, we're hopeless. This is so ridiculous! Matt… Come on… Just tell Bonnie, OK? Get it out of your chest before we all explode keeping it in for you."

"Not a word to Bonnie, you guys," Matt hissed. "Or I swear…"

Damon oooh-ed. "Guys, Deputy Donovan's making threats. Everyone take cover."

 _Who the heck does he think he is, judging me?_ Bonnie thought furiously. _Hello, Mr. I-Kissed-Two-Evil-Vamps-And-Liked-It._ She had half a mind to barge into the kitchen right now and throw his disapproval in his face.

She cut off the spell, having heard enough. Her best friend was a hypocritical square. As secrets and lies went, that was nothing.

She walked down the corridor, and barged through the large doors.

The others started, looking appropriately guilty.

Bonnie gave each of them a grim smile, sparing a particularly mean one for Matt who looked alarmed.

"So… who's up for killing heretics?"

* * *

 _May 2014_

"OK, guys, I know we said we were going to blow up heretics, but I didn't think you meant we were going to…"

"… literally blow up heretics?" Tyler said with a slightly maniacal grin.

Bonnie gulped.

The War Room – the affectionate nickname they had given the guest room turned armory in the Salvatore's boarding house – housed a fair share of dangerous arsenal. Crossbows, Molotov cocktails, magical weapons of all variations, even guns and grenades all found a place in the stacks that reached near the roof. But this was the first – and Bonnie sincerely hoped, the last – time that it housed this particular brand of munition.

In the middle of the table sat a row of dynamite.

Bonnie did not think of herself as a fainting kind of girl – but the sight of all those explosives in close proximity to her very flesh-and-bone person almost made her pass out.

She gulped again.

"Relax Bonnie," Matt said, laughing as he watched her face. "They're not going to blow off until they're set."

"Are you sure? Isn't the room too hot? Too damp? Am I the only one who's feeling sick looking at these things?"

Tyler snickered as he grabbed the first brick, and started rolling up the line of dynamite like a very thick scroll and not something that could literally blow up in his face, taking Bonnie, everyone in the room and about fifty meters of real estate with it.

He pushed it into a large bag, zipped it up and grinned at her. "Sit back, relax and watch things go ka-boom!" he announced.

"Of course, this would be your idea, Tyler," Caroline declared.

"Can you think of a better one?" he challenged. "As long as we're sure of the location of their house, we're good."

"I'm sure of the general _area_ ," Bonnie said.

"This baby's going to take out that area times ten, believe me." He and Matt gave each other high-fives.

"Scared, BB?" Matt teased, catching her worried glance.

She took a deep breath and ignored the question. Instead, she turned away from the dynamites, and towards Caroline. "Are you up for your part?"

"You mean the part where I'm charming and guileless and distract the heretics while Tyler and Stefan booby-trap their house? I can do that in my sleep. I am Miss Mystic Falls, after all." Caroline tossed her hair.

"And I'm going to be by her side, all the way," Matt added, "charming and distracting them with my All-American good looks while Tyler and Stefan place the explosives."

Bonnie cracked a smile at that. Wary that the heretics might have recognized, or even already been aware of any of their group, she had spelled a glamour over the two going into enemy territory.

Months ago, when her cousin offered to teach her how to glamour, Bonnie had been startled.

"I thought that was Gemini spell-craft?"

Lucy scoffed. "We're Bennetts. No magic is off-limits to us."

Now, Caroline spotted darker skin and an impressive Afro and Matt wore glasses on his East Asian features. They were dressed in conservative chic and looked like something from a fashion spread from the United Colours of Benetton.

Lucy would be so proud.

"Remind me again why we're sending the bait in with the duffer?" A familiar accented voice declared.

The four friends turned as Enzo and Damon stepped into the room. Bonnie glanced worriedly at the bag that swung, oh-so-casually from Tyler's shoulder. Was all this body heat in this small space really such a good idea? Sure Tyler said they needed to be set, and something about blasting caps, but still…

"I still think Caroline and I should go," Enzo persisted. It wasn't the first time he had suggested this.

Lord knew that Enzo wasn't Bonnie's first choice of an ally, but there was no questioning his loyalty to Caroline. It struck her then, suddenly, that to her knowledge, there was only one person that Enzo might ever hold above Caroline – and it was a good thing that she was dead. Or who knew where Enzo's loyalty might lie in this conflict that had Lily's biological but forsaken sons on one side, and her adopted and preferred children on the other? Bonnie hadn't seen the point at the time, had chalked it up to Damon's usual schemes, but now she agreed with Damon that Enzo finding out the truth about Lily Salvatore would have been more painful and harmful – to everyone – than it was worth.

"Uh-no. The heretics will hear one word from your poor man's Pierce Brosnan's voice and tear you into pieces," Matt fired back.

"So you're saying that they'd find my voice bloody fit? That _you_ find my voice bloody fit?"

Damon and Tyler snickered as Matt opened and closed his mouth in outrage. Bonnie and Caroline locked gazes across the table and smiled.

"Ugh!" Damon shouted. "Mind out of the gutter, ladies!"

"Hey," Bonnie said, laughing. "Since when can you read minds?"

"Because my mind's always in the gutter, and now I'm feeling crowded."

Everyone was laughing or snickering now, except poor Matt. "Guys, really?" he said, frowning. "Enzo?"

"I think you two will make a lovely couple," Caroline managed to say between huge giggles.

Someone's phone rang.

Bonnie almost fainted. " _The explosives_!"

Tyler shuddered. "OK, I'm leaving now because I know dynamites, and I know charges but I don't know what your nerves and magic combined are going to do to these babies. Congratulations Bonnie, you've succeeded in freaking me out. See you guys."

He left – to Bonnie's eternal relief – as Damon pulled out his phone.

"He's on his way." He mouthed _'Stefan'_ to the others. "Not-Blond and Not-Blonder will be there in fifteen." He switched off the phone. "You ready for this?"

The others nodded, and made varying agreeing sounds. Bonnie flexed her fingers and smiled at the rush of magic, then put her hands flat on the dynamite-free table.

"If every-thing goes according to plan," she said softly, "Mystic Falls will be heretic-free in the next six hours." _And I'm off the hook once and for all from saving this fucking town_.

Matt put his hand over hers, threading her fingers slightly. "Here, here, Bonnie."

"Let's not jinx this," Damon said, but he still put his hand over Matt's.

"Shouldn't Tyler and Stefan be here…?" Caroline started, then yelped when Enzo yanked her hand, placing it over the others, then his on top.

Damon looked at all of them and nodded grimly. "Let's go blow up some heretics."

* * *

 _June 2014_

In the hot evening, the War Room felt crowded and uncomfortable.

The vampires stood around the empty table. Matt had discovered an armchair under a pile of arrows, and Bonnie was sitting there now, while he leaned against her leg, exhausted. She almost pushed him off, still ticked with him from earlier, but pity swayed her kinder instincts.

The present discussion had been dragging for hours.

After their earlier pow-wow at the Lockwoods' Mansion, they had gone their separate ways and reconvened a few hours' later at the Salvatores'. Partly because it seemed fitting to plan with here since that was what they had been doing all along; but also because it was more convenient to keep this plan away from Tyler – and by extension, Liv and the rest of the Gemini – when they weren't scheming in his house.

Bonnie felt a little guilty at that. She was breaking her own rules about keeping secrets. But this was too important.

They finally had a chance.

That is, if she could get Stefan Salvatore to budge.

"I don't know how to make this any clearer," she said now, trying to keep her voice level and not show her acute irritation at the entire conversation. "But I'm going with Caroline and Matt to New Orleans or I am not going at all."

Caroline was the closest thing Bonnie had to a sister now that Elena was half-way around the world. And as for Matt, she might be slightly miffed at him for being such a hypocrite, but she knew she could trust him with her life.

The Salvatores were an entirely different matter.

"We've talked about this, Bonnie," Stefan said through gritted teth. "Klaus' is away from New Orleans so Caroline doesn't have to come. We'll be dealing with Elijah, and three siblings. Matt can be there to work on Rebecca."

"Er…" Matt said, shifting nervously on the floor. "About that…"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. _Hypocrite._

"Save your romantic dilemma for another time, Donovan," Damon snarked. "The lady specifically asked after you. Pull a Lockwood, and take one for the team."

Beside her, Matt seemed to sink lower into the floor. Bonnie scoffed quietly.

"And Elijah specifically requested for Bonnie," Stefan finished. "And I'm there for negotiations."

"We've talked about it but you're not listening," she snapped.

"I can be there for negotiations, too," Caroline countered, plopping down on Bonnie's arm rest. She shouldn't have really been physically exhausted. But maybe she too was spiritually fed up with this discussion. "If Bonnie wants me there, then I'll be there. Let's all four go along."

"I am going with you and Matt _only_."

"OK, Bonnie," Stefan barked, losing some of his unflappability. "Out with it."

"Out with what?"

"The real reason you don't want me coming along to New Orleans."

"Hey Stefan," Matt snapped. "Bonnie doesn't owe anyone an explan-"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, she does. Full disclosure right? Those were _her_ rules. Now she has to stick to them."

Matt could say nothing to that, but he leaned harder on Bonnie's leg, as if in support.

Bonnie glared at Stefan for a moment, then fell back into the chair in defeat. "You asked for it, then."

"Just tell us, Bonnie," Stefan said.

"Oh, I will. So Elijah Mikaelson wants me to do something for him in exchange for compelling the heretics."

It was such a simple plan, really, that when Bonnie finally laid it out to them, they all wondered the same thing – why didn't any of them think of it before?

Bonnie had smarted a little at that. Because it was far more than just simple compulsion.

"For one thing, compulsion is risky," she had explained. "It's still magic. They can just siphon it out from their own minds but not if -"

"-they were compelled _not_ to siphon it out," Damon had finished. "Or were compelled not to remember that they were compelled. Or they were compelled to kill themselves quickly before they tried to siphon it out."

Of course, Bonnie thought with a mixture of disgust and amusement, Damon would be the first person to buy into this idea.

Caroline had wanted to know what would happen if the Original got daggered and the compulsion broke. "Remember how much Klaus loves keeping his family in boxes?"

"We aren't compelling them for an eternity of good behaviour," Bonnie had said brutally. "We're compelling them to suicide-murder. There won't be any time between them being compelled and them dying for Klaus, for any insane reason, to teleport to Mystic Falls and dagger his sibling."

 _Ideally_ , Bonnie thought now. But if there was one thing magic had taught her, there was always a loop-hole.

So she had found a way to seal this one. A spell she herself had designed, based on one of the Gemini grimoire, so that when casted during the actual compulsion, it sustained the compulsion for a few days beyond the Original's daggering or even death.

Bonnie had only described the spell to the others in broad hints. She had felt uncomfortable discussing it in detail because of its source: the report of a study by some Gemini mage of the elements of the sire bond. It had been a series of attempts to duplicate the sire bond, apparently developed by testing on some unfortunate vampire with the ability. He or she had been unsuccessful in duplicating the sire bond but his notes had proven useful to Bonnie.

Of course, bringing up Gemini using vampires as guinea pigs so soon after the quarrel with Matt; or vampires _with_ the ability to sire-bond being used as guinea pigs in general considering Damon's past with the Augustine Society…

Well, that was just tactless. Bonnie herself felt distinctly uncomfortable that she was even using magic based on such cold-bloodedness.

Of course, Klaus Mikaelson himself could not be daggered. If he could be persuaded to help them, Bonnie would never have to sully the few scruples she had left and use the spell.

But as it turned out, the Original Hybrid wasn't available. Between leaving the Lockwood's and re-assembling at the Salvatore's, Stefan had got in touch with NOLA and he found out that Klaus Mikaelson was … indisposed.

Elijah Mikaelson however, was willing to help, but …

"Of course he wants something," Bonnie exclaimed now, as a wave of bitterness hit her. "I mean him deciding to be a decent human… _vampire_ for a change and do the right thing? No, that would have been the plot twist in this tale."

Stefan sighed. "Well, we can't say we're surprised by this. I'm sorry, Bonnie that he's making this demand of you. If there was any other thing we could have offered Elijah…"

"Save it. I've agreed to go, haven't I? But this is my condition. As you well know, dealing with the Mikaelsons has never ended well for me."

There was an awkward silence.

"But what does that have to do with Stefan?" Caroline asked.

Bonnie just gave her a _look_. She loved her best friend but sometimes Caroline was completely clueless.

"Let me clarify," Bonnie said through gritted teeth as she stared at the Salvatore brothers who were doing their damnest not to look her in the eye right now. "Dealing with the Mikaelsons with a Salvatore at my back has never ended well for me."

"Oh," Caroline said softly.

" _Oh_ indeed."

"Bonbon," Damon started.

"Don't _Bonbon_ me," Bonnie snapped. "There's nothing to discuss here. I'm going to New Orleans with my friends or I'm not going at all."

"So _we_ 're not friends?"

"My _childhood_ friends if that makes you feel better."

"No, _Bonnie_. It doesn't."

"Too bad."

Stefan stepped in. "What if I don't agree to this? You give up on fighting the heretics? Let them destroy Mystic Falls?" The challenge in his voice was clear.

"Watch it, Stefan," Caroline warned.

"I'm talking to _Bonnie_ ," Stefan snapped back, his tone making Caroline recoil.

"You don't get to strong-arm her or anyone else here," Matt interjected. "We're all here of our own free will. No one's going to be forced to do anything."

"What world do you live in, Matty Blue Eyes?" Damon sneered.

"This is what I hate about you guys," Matt exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "You feel you can bully anyone into doing anything you like. Well, I'm not going to let you-"

"Let us do what, exactly?" Stefan asked quietly, dangerously.

Voices rose angrily, everyone speaking over each other, and the first time Bonnie said it, no one heard.

Until she shouted it.

Stefan froze. As did everyone else in the room.

"What did you say?" he finally asked, his voice like ice.

Bonnie looked him straight in the eyes.

"The Cure. I write Elena and tell her we need the Cure."

He blanched.

There was a long silence.

"The Cure is out of the question," Stefan said slowly.

Matt cleared his throat. "Five students died not too far from here. Humans. Innocent bystanders. I'm sure if Elena realized…"

"I said, it's out of the question." Stefan didn't raise his voice. Not by one decibel.

But the warning in it was clear.

"Why is that up to you?" Caroline asked at once.

The two locked gazes. Stefan's was blank but implacable. Caroline's was furious.

"It's not," Bonnie said, breaking the stalemate. "It's up to Elena. And she's _Elena_. She's not going to say no. But on the off-chance she does, _then_ I let Mystic Falls burn. I walked away from this town before. I can do it again."

"You won't dare," he growled.

She crossed her arms. "Won't I?"

The tension in the room was thick enough to stab through with a wooden stake.

Then Stefan pushed off from the table. "You win," he said quietly and walked out.

Damon looked hard at Bonnie. "Witchy, one of these days, you and I are going to have to talk."

Bonnie smiled thinly. "Can't hardly wait."

He rubbed his hand on his neck and seemed to be thinking about what to say. Then he shrugged and, unexpectedly, threw Caroline a commiserating smile. "Hang in there, Barbie."

He followed his brother.

Tense silence followed as Bonnie and Matt tried not to look at Caroline.

Bonnie tampered down her feelings of guilt.

Because it wasn't on her that she had to bring up dragging Elena back into Mystic Falls for this. It was a conversation that she knew would upset everyone. The Cure had always been an option – but none of them had ever brought it up for this precise reason. It had definitely upset Bonnie to suggest it. But Stefan hadn't given her a choice.

And yet…

Bonnie hadn't wanted to be dragged back into this mad world of theirs either. But she had had to do what she felt she needed to do.

So despite her own feelings on the subject, Stefan's reaction also miffed her. Even Damon had been more reasonable about the suggestion, seeming more upset about Bonnie's attitude towards his brother than the idea of Elena returning. He was doing that thing again, Bonnie realized, where he pretended to be uber-calm about things that would ordinarily upset him. He had put on the act for Liv that morning. And he had done the same thing for Bonnie when Enzo came up the day before.

Matt broke the silence with a loud sigh. He walked to the table and leaned against it, so that he was staring at Bonnie.

Bonnie glared at him. "What?"

"Wow, Bonnie," Matt said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, you're right: Elena would definitely come back in a heartbeat if we told her we needed her help. I just… just didn't expect you to-"

"To what, Matt? Not agree to walk into danger with my eyes closed? Not let the Salvatores and the Mikaelsons push me around like a chess-piece? Have a modicum of self-preservation? Why the hell do you think I stayed away from this place for a year?"

"Hey, Bonnie!" He raised his hands up. "I'm on your side here."

Bonnie looked away. She was breathing hard, she realized suddenly, and she forced herself to calm down.

To Bonnie's surprise, Caroline reached for her shoulder, rubbing it gently. Bonnie felt a surge of gratitude to her friend. She didn't know what the hell was going on between Caroline and Stefan – and she wasn't going to ask until Caroline was clearly ready to say – but only a fool could have missed what just happened now. Yet Caroline was reaching past her own embarrassment and pain to console her, and Bonnie had never loved her friend more.

She leaned into Caroline and twined her fingers with her friend's.

Caroline laughed softly. "You know what's funny? If Elena were here, we won't need to go to NOLA at all. She'd guilt Elijah herself into coming here and doing this _pro bono_. He always had a soft spot for her."

"Ironic, right?" Bonnie wondered. She nudged her friend. "I didn't even ask if you were OK with coming to NOLA. I just assumed…"

"You kidding?" Caroline asked, although her smile was strained.

"Care…?"

"How do we keep this from Tyler?" Matt broke in, his voice heavy.

"With Livi-locks around? He probably won't notice if the whole group went to South America for the week," Caroline snipped.

Matt and Bonnie blinked at each other, both acknowledging – silently – the surprising tinge of venom in Caroline's voice.

"Liv… is leaving Mystic Falls in a few days…" Matt said tentatively.

"Huh." Caroline sniffed. "Well, there's a full moon on Friday."

She didn't need to say anymore. They all knew that Tyler would go underground in the days leading to and after the night of his transformation. No need to keep him in the dark – he'd be the one deliberately withdrawing away from the group.

"So, Matt," Caroline asked. "We're going into Original territory with half our usual army. Is your Resurrection Ring up to scratch? I mean, I've never quite understood if it still worked with the Other Side down."

Bonnie looked up at him as he looked down at her and despite recent differences, they shared a small, smug smile.

He nodded to Caroline. "Tested and trusted."

* * *

 _June 2013_

It was less than an hour before Jo's wedding; and somewhere Caroline Forbes was waiting in vain for the floral arrangements that Bonnie and Matt should have returned with hours ago. If Bonnie hadn't side-tracked Matt, they'd be at the wedding now, and not …

Here.

"Bonnie… Bonnie, wake up!"

She didn't want to. She was tired. She was so tired. She had come to Kai Parker's house to anticipate a vendetta that was all in her head. She had dragged her friend along for the ride and now he was dead. Matt was dead and it was all her fault.

Again.

"Bonnie!"

The insistent voice faded away, and she was so glad because all she wanted to do was sleep and never have to wake-

But warm hands kept patting her hair, rubbing on her cheeks, and upper arms, with increasing insistence. "Bonnie… Bonnie… _Bonnie!_ "

"What the hell?" she croaked as her eyelids parted slowly.

Then flew wide open.

"Shhh!" Matt's blue eyes were wide, panicked. "They left one to stand guard. I got her by surprise. Shot her with my cross-bow while I was still down. I think I got her through the heart but I also shot the others and they-"

The rest of his words were cut off as Bonnie threw herself into his arms. "Oh my goodness, Matt! They told me you were dead!"

He returned her embrace with good measure. "I… I think I was."

"So how?"

He raised his hand. She stared at the silver band on his finger – then at the matted blood on his throat – then back at the ring that she easily recognized from all the times she had seen it on Jeremy's hand.

The Gilbert ring.

"I thought that the ring had stopped working when the Other Side was destroyed," she breathed.

"I thought so, too," he said soberly. There was a dazed look on his face. "I guess there was still some alternate dimension for my soul to fall into."

Tears filled Bonnie's eyes. "Oh god, Matt. If anything had happened to you…"

His hug turned fierce, almost cutting off her air. She yelped a little and he released her, his arms loosening slowly.

Bonnie stepped away. "OK, Matt. We can't know how long she's going to stay down. We have to move quickly."

"I tried opening the doors before but they've been sealed with magic, I believe. Can you get us out?"

Bonnie worked fast. She helped herself once again to Kai's magical supplies. Then tried every spell she knew to bring down the wards that had been placed around the flat. Fifteen minutes later, she was gasping over burning candles, a wad of tissue soaking up blood from her nose and they were no closer to breaking free.

"Bonnie," Matt whispered worriedly.

She looked across to where he stood, barricading the guestroom, with his phone in hand. Earlier, he had dragged in there a ginger-headed body that Bonnie had barely glanced at.

"Call me crazy," he muttered, "but I swear I got the other two in the heart and they still… Bonnie!"

She had almost keeled over, her head light with blood loss.

"Bonnie, stop! You're hurting yourself."

"Matt…"

"We need to get help!" he exclaimed. "But I've been calling Kai Parker since I got free, and he's not answering. No one is. I think they're all at the wedding now."

They had both been out for hours and night had fallen.

"No help is coming and I can't take down the wards," Bonnie cried, her hands shaking as she casted again, futilely. "There's too much power." Never had she missed her Expression as she did at this moment. "I'm not strong enough."

"Can you get some?" When Bonnie gave him a look, he shook his head. "I'm sorry. Stupid question…"

"No," she breathed, "you're brilliant." She turned around slowly, her eyes weighing and calculating everything within sight. _Siphon's home. Magical sources._

It was a long shot. Siphoning Qetsiya's magic had taken a huge toll. But she had to try.

She hobbled to Kai's bedroom, rifled through every thing he owned – and wasn't it perverse how even now in the height of panic, she still felt unnerved in his bedroom? – but she found nothing that indicated a source of power that could be drained or even merely channeled.

Channeled…

She doubled back until she was a hand's span from Matt. He looked hopeful. "Found anything?"

Bonnie nodded. "You." She lifted her palms, facing outwards, an inch away from his chest. "I can channel you."

"Do it."

His complete lack of hesitation threw her off balance. "Matt, are you sure?"

"I trust you," he said, and he managed to sound both nervous and certain. "And we don't have much time."

"It won't hurt," she promised – him or herself – she couldn't tell. The last time she had channeled someone, it had been another witch and they had channeled each other.

"I trust you," Matt said, more firmly this time.

He was arranging the candles in a circle on the floor while she was chanting, preparing the casting that would turn a living, breathing person into a magical conduit. Then they were both standing in the ring of fire. His eyes closed as she placed her hands on his chest. Then she started calling on the magic that lay dormant inside him, and she felt it open up under her skin, felt it flow through her veins and mingle with her own power, restoring back the strength she had lost.

She heard him gasp but she couldn't stop now. _How strange_ , she thought coldly, even as she started spelling the wards down. When she and Kai had channeled each other, she had been completely lost in the magic, as much a conduit for him as he was for her. Now she felt the euphoria of casting, yes, but she was still in complete control. She could feel Matt's discomfort, the physical trauma that this was causing his body, but it was a thing apart from herself, something that she could detach herself from.

It hadn't been anything like that with Kai.

She heard the wards fall, a shudder against her aura, and it was over. She whispered the words to release Matt _from her_ power, and the candles went off. She lifted her hands from him, stepping back.

His eyes were still shut. For a moment, he just stood there.

Then he collapsed.

* * *

Bonnie had been calling her people non-stop since she levitated Matt onto his truck bed, and got behind the wheel. Caroline's line was constantly busy. Damon and Elena were not answering. Stefan's and Tyler's were switched off.

She drove like a mad woman to the general hospital. It was the safest place she could think of for Matt to stay while he recovered. Kai's place was obviously out of the question and the bar was, literally, a bar. Anyone could walk in and finish what they started. She mentioned Jo's name to the ER nurse and before she could finish, paramedics were at the truck and Matt was being whisked away in a trolley. He had started gaining consciousness towards the end, and Bonnie heard him asking for her as the trolley disappeared behind the hospital double doors.

As she rushed out of the hospital, she heard two doctors talking about ending their shift soon to make it to Jo's wedding.

She had backed out of the hospital by the time she realized that she had forgotten to take Matt's phone from him – the one with Kai Parker's number in its contacts. She paused for ten precious seconds, debating whether to go back for it – then she decided against it. There were very good odds that he was already at the venue and if he wasn't, the other Gemini were. Better to get to the venue as quickly as possible while trying to reach him through Caroline and the others.

She had driven into the street with one hand on the wheel and the other hand on the phone, calling Caroline without much hope this time – and nearly dropped her phone when she heard her friend's voice on the speaker.

"Caroline? Oh my g-"

"Bonnie, why haven't you returned my calls?"

"Care-"

"What is wrong with everybody? We are twenty minutes behind schedule and I can't keep stalling."

"Care-"

"Why do I have to do everything by myself? You know what? Just forget it. Where are you? Where are Damon and Elena? _Where the hell are the flowers?!_ "

" _Forget about the damn flowers, Caroline!"_ Bonnie screamed.

There was – finally – silence on the line and Bonnie used the chance to make a quick and dangerous lane change. Behind her, she could hear tyres skidding and horns blaring angrily.

"Bonnie?"

"Caroline, you have to listen carefully. Kai's going to be at the wedding and-"

"Oh, are you worried about that? We've sorted it out already."

Bonnie nearly ran into the SUV in front of her. _What?_ "You have?"

"Yes, I have to admit things were looking really bad. I thought there'd be blood."

Relief and disbelief made Bonnie's hands shake, and Matt's truck swerved. "What happened, Care?"

"Nothing. Both parties worked things out. It's all one big happy Gemini coven family now."

Bonnie felt the beginning of a headache as she tried to get out from behind the slow coach in front of her. But there were cars on the lanes on either side of her, trapping her. "Huh? Caroline, are we even talking about the same–"

"I told you, it's settled, Bonnie. I mean, what difference does it make whether it's her father or her older brother? It's still some man walking a grown-ass woman down to hand her over like _property_ to another man in the most antiquated, chauvinistic tradition of all time. Elena and I told Jo she should just walk down the bloody aisle herself rather than choose between two men who had tried to kill her. Recently. But did she listen to us? Noooo."

"Care, please listen-"

"Men. Why do they always feel that the world surrounds them? All they ever do is cause trouble and _not be there when you need them to be!_ "

"Caroline, please, listen to me…"

"Finally! There's Elena and Damon. What the hell, you two?…" Her voice became muffled; two others seemed to join in as an indistinct conversation followed.

"Caroline…! Caroline…!"

But the line became even more muted, as if the phone's mic, still on, had been obscured.

Caroline must have forgotten that she was in the middle of a phone call, and dropped the phone into her purse without switching off the call. Bonnie could still make out an indistinct murmur of voices. Then the sound of music. She recognized it at once. The wedding march, albeit a strangely haunting rendition of it.

The wedding had started.

Bonnie took a deep breath and forced herself to loosen her grip. Then she twisted the wheel, and slammed on the pedal, squeezing – barely – through a gap in the traffic and shooting out from behind the SUV. Once again, she could hear the chaos in her wake – honking horns, screeching tyres – but she didn't care.

The wedding march was still playing. With one hand, Bonnie punched at her phone and put the call to Caroline on hold. Then she tried Tyler's number again. Still switched off. Stefan's was the same as well.

Red lights were up ahead and she slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched to a halt, its nose entering the intersection as Bonnie screamed in frustration. Then she took Caroline's call off the hold. The green lights came on, and her car shot forward just as the music stopped. Someone – a minister, she reckoned – was speaking. The background was silent now and the voices sounded clearer. After the minister's voice, she made out a male voice that she easily recognized as Alaric's.

She put the call on hold again, and tried to call Elena and once again, to no avail. Heck, she thought to herself and even tried Damon's. Still no answer.

The church wasn't so far away, Bonnie told herself, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. In a few minutes, she'd be there and she could warn Kai and the Gemini in person.

She put Caroline off hold again. This time she could hear Jo Laughlin speaking – her voice was soft, tinged with laughter.

The church was up ahead. Bonnie drove right up to the front, legal parking be damned. She started coming out and something yanked her back into her seat. She struggled violently for a long, precious moments until she realized that it was her seatbelt that was cutting into her ribs. She laughed half-hysterically, and unbuckled it with shaky fingers.

She had made it. She was here on time…

Then Jo screamed.

Bonnie was close enough that she heard that blood-curdling scream twice – the first from through the church doors, the second echoing on her phone.

Then Alaric was shouting and above his voice was the sound of Damon's yelling: " _Elena!_ "

Bonnie jumped out of the truck so quickly that she stumbled, falling on her hands and her feet. Her heart was pounding in her throat, her legs shaking as she scrambled up the steps and burst through the doors.

Bonnie could feel magic gathering – so much magic concentrated within these four walls. It drenched over her skin like a downpour, a thick blanket of water that filled the air and cut off her breathing. She pushed back at it in panic – and it receded, barely, but enough for her to get control of her physical senses. And the first thing she saw was the altar raised on the dais above the hall and Kai Parker standing at the centre like some demonic priest in a tuxedo – one hand wielding a knife high above his sister, whom he held by the shoulder with his other hand – the sacrifice that he was about to slaughter.

Or, Bonnie thought with mounting horror, the sacrifice that he had already slaughtered.

Because there was blood all down the front of Jo's dress, red drenching through the white. There were bodies on the floor beside Jo – Elena… Alaric… Damon… A huddle of red clothes that looked like the body of a man – the minister?

Whatever had happened had only _just_ happened. Some people were still sitting down, confused. Others were rising or already on their feet, shouting, pointing.

Her eyes caught Kai's. Even across the expanse, she knew he had seen her – knew when their gazes locked. She felt a lump rise in her throat.

 _Why? Why?_ The question kept screaming through her head, as she watched him, frozen, unable to move, or to look away.

His gaze on her was hard, cold, furious. Then suddenly – he smiled.

He raised the knife higher, and that's when Bonnie noticed two things: it was _the_ knife, the one she thought she had lost in 1903, Josette's knife–

– _that he had stabbed Bonnie with that she had stabbed Kai with_ –

– and the white of his tuxedo was also stained with blood. Then he was swinging Jo into the arms of Alaric – who had risen to his feet in time to grab his wife. Damon was standing too, Bonnie noticed, gathering Elena to his arms.

And suddenly, people were rushing to the altar. At the fore front was a grey haired elderly man, his hands out and Bonnie could feel the magic pouring out from him at Kai…

 _No_ , she thought, her brain still frozen and sluggish, still struggling to understand what her eyes were seeing, _not at Kai._

At _Them_.

 _They_ had materialized on the altar. All six of them, stepping out of the thin air to surround Kai. Red-cloaked with the empty, zombie auras of the heretics.

Then powerful magic like she had never felt before rose through the air, prickling her skin, and drawing on something inside her, and she realized that it was coming from Kai, whose knife was raised high and who was…

 _No… No…_

It exploded out of him, a force wave that hit through the hall, flattening everything in its path, the heretics and the others all falling before it. The sound of exploding glass and screams filled the hall.

Then silence.

And darkness.

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _Portland, Oregon._

It had been a year, but the sound of glass exploding and people screaming, the sight of people – heretics, witches, and everyone else alike – falling flat on their faces was still chillingly familiar.

But that was only the beginning.

Alaric Saltzman braced himself, waiting for the carnage that would follow.

And… nothing.

The video ended, and skipped to the photos taken on his wedding day. Most of them were candids, not the formal wedding photos that they'd never got the chance to take. What with the massacre that ensued.

Technically, that day wasn't really his and Jo's actual _wedding day_. The heretics had arrived before they had finished their vows. They had exchanged vows in front of a notary a few days later, with only Jo's brother and a random Court official as their witnesses. Jo had worn something blue, in keeping with tradition. Alaric had worn…

A sharp rap at the door pulled him out of his wool-gathering thoughts and he blinked up at the bespectacled face of the faculty secretary standing in his doorway.

"Judi's at soccer practice," the bright young man said. "Should I ask her to come in now or wait until later?"

"Later, please," he said at once. No need to disrupt the girl's day.

The man nodded. As he walked out, Alaric glimpsed the quiet office corridor behind him. It was the last week of high school and school had been out early. Only teachers who were bogged down with extra work, had an extra-curricular activity that day, or were stuck monitoring detention were still around.

Alaric was none of the above. On any other day, he'd have been rushing home to his family.

But he needed to do this before he could bring himself to face them. He needed to root out these poisonous suspicions before he infected his home with them. Suspicions that had been planted by an insidious conversation with his nanny and fertilised by chaos in his kitchen.

He scrolled back to the video and started watching the last minutes again, this time in slow-motion. So the wedding video had been edited, he mused. Who could have spared the time in the weeks of chaos that followed, between sorting out the usual post-catastrophe paperwork that was so common place in Mystic Falls and the Saltzmans move house across the country? Surely Jo hadn't. Neither Alaric or his wife had expressed any interest in reliving that day; and these files had been buried in folders within folders of an old external drive for a year. Maybe Matt or Tyler had? Or even Damon?

Alaric wished he knew if only to thank the person – and maybe complain a bit about not cutting it off earlier. Preferably before the nuptial ceremony morphed into a dance of death. Those few seconds when Alaric had looked up, dazed and confused, from the ground at his almost-brand-new wife and seen blood pouring down her dress and thought it had been _hers_ were easily the worst moments of his life.

And then the seconds that followed – when Kai handed over the shaken, but completely unharmed Jo to Alaric and Alaric had realized that it wasn't Jo's blood that was drenching her white wedding gown but her _brother's_ who had taken the knife that had been meant for her… were easily the second best moments of his life.

The best being, of course, the night that Martha and Rachel had been borne.

 _So why am I doing this?_ Alaric asked himself suddenly. _I have the perfect wife. The perfect kids. The perfect life. Why am I digging up things that should probably stay buried?_

For a moment, his finger hovered over a frame, pausing the video as he gazed into the distance, at nothing in particular. He could just stop all this now. Tell Bonnie and Damon that he tried, but he came up short. Ignore Gab's pointed comments and sharp bird-eyes.

Ignore the deep chasm of secrets and lies that was widening between him and his wife.

 _Only I did the same thing with Isobel, didn't I? And in exchange for burying my head in the sand and refusing to rock the boat, I lost my wife … and my life as I knew it._

Resolute, he pulled his gaze from his inner thoughts to the screen in front of him. He was about to unpause the video, when he stopped, peering hard at the faces that the camera had zoomed in at that particular moment.

A pair of matronly old women sat side by side on the brides's side of the pew. They were a study in contrasts – one pale-skinned with raven hair that probably came out of a bottle; the other dark-skinned with hair the colour of snow. Physically, they seemed nothing alike yet there was an uncanny resemblance in the way they looked – both sharp-eyed, stern, intimidating.

They looked like headmistresses, Alaric thought to himself. But that was not what had caught his attention. He recognized the snow-haired one. He had a distinct memory of this woman haranguing he and Jo when she landed in Mystic Falls with Joshua Parker's personal contingent, determined to take over the wedding. Josette had lamented about it but he, Alaric, had been completely unsympathetic. She had been the one, after all, who had caved and invited the Gemini when her father had agreed to foot the bill.

If the snow-haired woman had come as part of the Joshua's personal contingent that meant that she was a high-ranking Gemini: either a member of the Council, an Elder or an Envoy Chief. Or, Alaric wondered with a frown, she _had_ been? There was a story there that he had either forgotten or never quite got in full from Jo.

What was important was that even though it had been a year, he recognised her. And he remembered her name.

He still took the time to open the wedding program beside him to confirm it. Confirm her name, and confirm the name of her grand-daughter who had been part of Jo's bridal train.

Dame Bethany _Stewart_.

Grandmother to _Judi_ Stewart.

One year later and all it had taken after the nanny's pointed ramblings were one fleeting image from their wedding video and a glance at the wedding program.

But meanwhile, his wife...

 _"Does the name Stewart ring a bell?"_

 _"Nope. Should it?"_

Alaric didn't want to remember. But there was nothing he could do to stop the flow of memories. Memories of conversations with his wife.

Memories of Jo's guileless voice.

Jo's guileless _face_.

 _"Hey, Jo, did you ever get a chance to look into that name I mentioned… Judith Stewart?"_

 _"…S-T-U-A-R-T… on-call nurse at the hospital …"_

 _"Oh… Thanks for looking into it."_

 _"You're welcome. What is this about anyway?"_

Memories of his wife lying to him.

But _why_?

Why would Jo lie about knowing Judith Stewart, an old witch murdered by heretics? Heretics who had shown up on Jo's wedding day to kill her. Who had almost killed her, if not for her brother.

Why would Jo lie for _them_? And for what end? What difference did it make? Though Alaric hadn't immediately recalled Judith Stewart, surely the Gemini knew their own. Knew she had been murdered by heretics.

Was Jo lying to protect him, Alaric?

He remembered the conversation he had overheard the night before – the one that had planted these doubts into his head in the first place. Standing in the kitchen and listening to his wife's voice through the baby monitor, snarling out threats and sounding completely unlike the woman he married.

Jo warning Gab.

Jo _threatening_ Gab.

No. He didn't know what Jo was doing, but whatever it was, it wasn't because she was trying to protect him.

He reached into his drawer for a bottle of water and gulped it down thirstily, wishing he could get a proper drink.

There was a rap on the door.

"Come in," he called hoarsely.

She was still wearing her soccer clothes, and Alaric immediately felt guilty for not letting her change. Tall, olive-skinned with dark red curls in a sensible plait, she looked vaguely familiar. She couldn't have been in any of his classes though. He had mostly senior year and he had already checked from her file that she was a sophomore.

He would have liked to think that he recognized her from his wedding – she had been in Josette's train, after all, but the truth was that apart from the standouts like Bethany Stewart and a few others, he had barely registered any of the Gemini witches that were not Josette's immediate family.

"Mr. Saltzman, you asked to see me?" she asked, tentatively.

"Yes, please have a seat Miss Stewart." He paused. "You remember me, don't you?" He clarified. "I mean, you remember my wedding last year."

Young Judi Stewart - undoubtedly named after her Great-Aunt _Judith_ Stewart - gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah. You're Josette Parker's husband."

 _Josette Parker._ How odd. Alaric had never known his wife by that name. She had been Dr. Jo Laughlin all the time he knew her until they got married and she had chosen to take his own name.

Judi looked around nervously. "I don't know if it's OK to talk here about…" Her voice lowered. "… coven stuff?"

Alaric forced his face into a reassuring smile, and clamped down on thoughts about how little he really knew the woman he was married to. "I'm not really going to talk about that. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your Great-Aunt Judith."

* * *

 _New Orleans, Louisiana_

Bonnie was nudged out of a fitful sleep by Caroline's sharp elbow and her friend's even sharper whisper.

"I remember Bethany Stewart," Caroline hissed.

"W… what… where?"

"Pay attention, Bonnie. I said I remember Bethany Stewart. Not Judith, the one who's dead. The other one. The last name on the list." She flapped a copy of said list in front of Bonnie's face.

Bonnie immediately snatched the list and slammed it face-down on her lap. "Put that down, Care." Then she looked around her, blearily. Yes, she was still in the airplane. And yes, they were still thousands of miles in the air and her vampire friend, who didn't need sleep, had chosen to yank Bonnie's out of the little hours of RMS time she got.

"I… that's really… why are you telling me this now, Care?" she finally asked, too tired to even be properly angry.

"Because I think it's important," Caroline said as if it should be obvious.

"Oh."

Caroline went on at great length about Bethany Stewart. Mostly about how the woman had tried to hijack Jo's and Alaric's wedding from her, Caroline and how Caroline had fought back, giving the old witch as good as she got.

Bonnie supposed that Caroline was right in using the exact phrase 'old witch'. But somehow, she didn't think Caroline meant it in the literal, technical sense.

But she didn't say a word to Caroline. Caroline didn't really seem to need a response though. She had gone off on a rant about her experience that day, and all Bonnie had to do was nod at appropriate times. It was just Bonnie's bad luck that she needed to be awake to do that. Also, unlike Matt who had been safely far away from the wedding venue, Bonnie had actually been there during Caroline's face off with Bethany Stewart. So Matt got to sleep on the other side of the aisle while Bonnie got her ear talked out off.

She supposed that if her memories of Jo's wedding had been limited to party-planning and getting out of Dodge the moment the heretics showed up, she too would have a vivid recollection of this apparently scarring encounter with the Gemini matron. But Bonnie had had all sorts of adventures that day and the highpoint of Caroline's day was barely a blip on Bonnie's memory radar. She didn't even have a mental picture of the woman in question.

Caroline finally stopped talking. But only as the plane was taxing down at the runway. With a heavy sigh, Bonnie unbuckled out of her seat and reached for her overheard bag. Matt got there first, throwing it on his free shoulder, with a grin.

"Thanks," she said, smiling up at him as she started walking down the aisle.

"Aw," Caroline cooed, "Mattie can you help me-"

"Sorry, Care," he snarked, brushing past her to follow Bonnie out the plane.

"You can't see me but I'd like you to know I'm sticking my tongue at your back!" Care yelled, ignoring the amused looks of people passing her by.

She was still grumbling as they stepped into the sweltering New Orleans heat, and made their way through airport logistics to get their luggage and rent a car.

"You'd have thought that someone would have come to meet us," Caroline said fretfully, from where she rode shotgun with Matt, glancing fretfully through her window.

Bonnie wondered what her vampire eyes could see, or expected to see on a Monday night in NOLA. It was already late evening when they off-boarded, and by the time they got into the car, it was dark. The lights of the French Quarter were on, but Bonnie could barely make anything out of her glass. Not that she was trying particularly hard. Plus, she was struggling with the sleep that Caroline had deprived her off during the flight.

"Why?" Matt asked, surprised. "We have the address. We've got GPS. It's good we have our own ride. Keeps us free agents."

"We already turned down the offer to stay at the Mikaelsons's," Caroline retorted. "We can't get any freer than that. Or spend more money on fuel, accommodation and food."

"You're worried about _money_?" Matt sputtered. "Isn't that my thing?"

"You've got a job, Matt. I've got student loans."

"Care, what's going on?"

In the backseat, Bonnie stifled a yawn, but when Caroline fell silent, Bonnie's ears perked up. Now that Matt had asked the question, she realized that yes, Caroline was acting a little off. The extra-chattiness, the random bitching, the complaining. True, once in a while, her friend could be a bit… much, to put it nicely. But this was more than that. Something was up. And it had started back in Virginia, when the idea of this trip was brought up.

"Caroline, are you nervous about being here?" Bonnie asked.

"No!" After a pause, Caroline glanced over her shoulder. "Maybe a little. Aren't you?"

Bonnie bit her lip, thinking. "No," she said truthfully. "Not really. Mostly I just want this over and done with."

She wasn't looking forward to meeting the Mikaelsons, not in the least. She had suffered considerably at their hands. But that was the old Bonnie. The one who was the first to jump between her friends and fires they started. The one who cared more about everyone else than herself. The one who believed herself to be the strongest, and therefore the one to take the heaviest blow.

She was a different Bonnie. A Bonnie who had learnt the hard way that the first death might be seen as a heroic sacrifice but every death after became an expected duty. Her friends had shown her that they would – and they had – survive without her. And she wasn't just thinking about the past year she'd stayed away from Mystic Falls. She was also thinking about all the times she had died, and their lives had moved on.

Yes, it was a whole new Bonnie that was going to face the Originals. A Bonnie who only put out her own fires – and would do so without letting them burn her first.

She smirked softly. The Mikaelsons won't know what hit them.

"I'm a little nervous," Matt admitted softly.

"I'm a lot nervous," Caroline said with a shaky laugh. "I mean… I know that Stefan said that… K-Klaus isn't in NOLA now but … what if he is? What… how…?" Her voice trailed off.

Bonnie glanced at the backs of her two friends. She wondered if Matt was thinking of Rebekah. If _that_ was the cause of his nervousness. She supposed it made sense. Of all their friends, she and Tyler had been the only ones who hadn't had complicated relationships with the Mikaelsons. To Tyler, they would always represent the time he was enslaved to Klaus, the massacre of his pack, the murder of his mother, his exile from his home. To Bonnie, they would always be the evil family who had wrecked havoc in Mystic Falls, whose actions had led to the turning of her mother, and brought misery to her friends.

But to everyone else – Matt, Caroline, Elena, the Salvatores… The Originals were sometime allies, sometime besties, sometime lovers. _They_ had reason to be nervous because they had both, at one point in time or the other, got into bed with the enemy. In the literal _and_ figurative sense.

Bonnie hadn't had that dubious privilege. Her relationship with the Originals was far simpler. And that was why she was lying back on the drive to their mansion, trying to catch some zzzzs so that when she faced Elijah, she'd be sharp and alert and ready to take him on.

"Maybe we should have brought Stefan-" Caroline started, then stopped when Bonnie smacked the back of her car seat. "Ow! I'm just saying…"

"It's too late for that now," Matt said firmly. "And we'll be fine. Come on, Care. A witch, a vampire and a savvy licensed-to-shoot mundane? We're an unbeatable team."

"Actually, we just sound like the beginning of a bad bar joke," Bonnie quipped.

Matt pretended to be hurt and Caroline snickered at that.

The three friends exchanged smiles, Matt and Bonnie locking eyes in the mirror before they each looked in turn at Caroline. A small bubble of happiness rose in Bonnie's heart. They were fine. They would be fine. She had no regrets about not carrying along any of the Salvatores and their twisted brand of deal-making, that involved stabbing people in the back when it suited them. She was in NOLA with people she could trust and that was what counted.

Even if they did have an unfortunate habit of sleeping with the occasional super-villains. No one was perfect.

 _OK now, who's acting the hypocrite?_

Bonnie blushed. Nope, she had relinquished any claim to that particular halo any more.

Completely, thoroughly, repeatedly, and vigorously relinquished that claim.

"Bonnie, you OK?" Matt called back. He was turning off the main street to a row of palatial hotels. "You sounded like if you were choking."

"Groovy," she yelped and buried herself into the seat, as she pushed back suddenly vivid thoughts of dark-haired, gray-eyed wizards with literally magical hands, and lips and – _oh heavens, why now?_ – far into the back of her mind. The last thing she needed right was to get caught up with thoughts of _him_. If she was going to face the Mikaelsons and come out of this a winner, she needed to keep her head in the game.

They checked into their hotel first – a beautiful, colonial-style building with white pillars and luxurious furniture. Matt didn't look too pleased when Caroline checked them all in with Stephan's credit card, but Bonnie left the other two to bicker over that while she went ahead to revel in her beautiful room. It had panelled floors, exotic flowers on every flat surface, and a beautiful balcony that they had been told overlooked the Mississippi river. It was perfect and for the first time since they had started planning this trip, something more than weary resolve filled Bonnie. She felt the faint tendrils of excitement rise inside her. This was New Orleans after all. The Mecca of witches and magic in the Northern continent. Whatever reason brought her here didn't matter.

She stood at the balcony, breathing in the salty, balmy air when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Bonnie called.

"You shouldn't leave your door open," Caroline cautioned, stepping in. "Oh, this is pretty. Mine doesn't have as many flowers. We need to start going. The Mikaelsons are expecting us for dinner. Formal wear, Stefan said."

Bonnie sighed, as some of the excitement seeped out of her. She stepped away from the balcony. "Give me a few minutes to shower and change."

In a few minutes, the three friends were driving away from their hotel to the Mikaelsons' home in the heart of the Quarter.

Maybe it was the slightly cold shower. Maybe it was the outfit that she was wearing. Knee-length and blue, with pushed back shoulders and strappy heels of the same colour. Matt's eyes had widened and his ears had turned pink when she met him in the lobby. It should have flattered Bonnie but for some reason, it just made her nervous.

That was it, she realized with a pang of surprise. She had finally caught the nervous bug that she had thought herself immune to. Because there was no denying the fluttering in her stomach. Or the way her mouth continued to stay dry no matter how many times, she swallowed. Or that her hands were shaking a little around the clutch in her lap.

Why was she nervous? She asked herself.

 _The last time I saw these people, they were either trying to kill me or trying to kill my friends. Why won't I be nervous?_

But she hadn't been nervous less than an hour ago. She had been weary and wary, but alert. _What changed?_

 _Maybe when you started thinking about falling in bed with…_

"This is it," Matt declared, as he drove up to a palatial-styled gate, and gave their names to the waiting steward.

Caroline peeped out her window, looking round. She let out a little nervous giggle. "Fancy."

Bonnie smoothed her dampened palms on her skirt and schooled her thoughts firmly, as they drove into the compound. In the darkness, all she could make out was tall trees on sprawling grounds. In the distance, she thought she glimpsed the white of marble statues, reflected in the crescent moonlight, but then again, it was dark. And her mind was buzzing.

 _Face blank. Chin up._

Whatever the butterflies in her stomach said, she wasn't going to show that she was off her game. She was walking into a den of predators. The worst thing she could do was show blood.

Matt drove up to the entrance canopy and got out, handing over the keys to the waiting valet.

The girls were helped out of the car by immaculately-uniformed, fashion magazine-gorgeous stewards. An elegant beauty in a red dress took Matt's elbow. As one party, the three friends were led through the Mikaelsons's house.

As they walked, Bonnie paid as much attention to her escort as she did to the hallways, and glimpses of rooms through doors left ajar. Later she would reflect on the antiquated style, the faded tapestry, portraits of the family that lined every passageway; even the magic felt aged – not just old in the sense of longevity but old in the sense of archaic, extinct. She felt like if she was stepping years into the past to a house that was frozen in time.

An appropriate dwelling place for fossils.

She side-eyed the handsome man leading her through the doors that opened into a wide courtyard, and wondered if he was a willing servant or a compelled slave.

Was it really nerves she felt? Bonnie wondered as she walked down the short steps that bridged the interior of the house to the open space and regarded the family of three waiting for her by the heavy-laden dining table.

Maybe it was simply rage.

"Bonnie Bennett, Caroline Forbes, Matthew Donovan, we are honoured to have you as our guests."

Of course, Elijah Mikaelson did the honours. He stepped forward, the picture of elegance in the familiar suit that Bonnie wondered if he slept in. He bowed before Bonnie with a flourish, and rose with a brush of his lips on the back of her palm.

A few years ago –

before her magic woke and his Original aura made her blood curdle; before he betrayed them all and let Jenna Sommers die for nothing; before he master-minded her mother's death; before his family treated her like a pawn they could push around in their game of survival at all costs, the preservation of their unnatural longetivity –

Bonnie might have found him charming.

Now, she smiled sweetly. "Thank you, Elijah, for having us."

His eyes flickered at that. Bonnie wondered if she had let some of the poison she felt towards him slip into her voice.

She hoped so.

But his face was blankly courteous as he went to greet Caroline, and Matthew in turn.

He walked back to his family. "And these are my sisters. Rebecca, you know-"

Rebecca Mikaelson came forward, blue-eyed, blonde hair swept into an elegant chiffon and dressed in something short and red. "Matt!" she squealed and jumped the former quarterback with a big, perfunctory kiss.

" _Ooof_!" he said, staggering a little as he caught her.

It took him a while to extricate himself from her, and when he did, his face was completely red. "Hey, Rebecca, hey…" He threw Bonnie a nervous look.

Bonnie replied with a quick warning glance. That was not how he was supposed to greet his former Eurotour partner.

The youngest Mikaelson was mercurial and unpredictable and not their first choice to deal with a problem as important and dangerous as the heretics. But she was their back-up in case Elijah, for some freakish reason, decided to renege on their deal – or asked Bonnie for a price she was unwilling to pay. So Matt needed to show a bit more enthusiasm at seeing her in case that ever came to pass.

"Nice to see you're as handsome and speechless as ever," Rebecca said with a huge grin. She stroked his blushing cheeks, and giggled before walking to the girls.

OK, Bonnie decided. Maybe Matt did know what he was doing.

Rebecca beamed at Caroline. "I love your dress. And the way you did your hair is to-die-for."

Caroline, who had been eyeing her on-again, off-again frenemy with wariness, melted a little. "Thanks. You look really nice, too."

Rebecca preened a little at that, then she was in front of Bonnie. "BB!" she yelled, and before Bonnie realized it, she was being smothered by tall, blonde, eternally-seventeen-year-old Mikaelson.

"Er… Rebecca… hi." She stared at Caroline and Matt in confusion over Rebecca's shoulder. The others gaped, just as surprised. Bonnie and Rebecca might have had a grand total of two conversations in all the time they had known each other. Where did this warm welcome come from?

Rebecca pulled back. Her eyes were shining. "Sorry. I just… it's nice to see you all again. I've missed you … you guys." She blushed a little, and smiled ruefully.

Bonnie returned the smile cautiously. "It's nice…" No, for the life of her, Bonnie could not bring herself to lie and say that she missed Rebecca Mikaelson. "… to see you so happy here, Rebecca."

That at least was true. Happy and here in New Orleans and far away from Mystic Falls. Bonnie was certainly glad to see that.

Rebecca's smile didn't waver, but it twisted a little, turned almost bittersweet as she kept peering at Bonnie. It was almost as if she was searching for something in Bonnie's face, or trying to make Bonnie see something in hers.

Before it could get any more unnerving, Elijah spoke up, making Rebecca step away from Bonnie and her friends.

"Rebecca, stop being uncouth and allow our sister to meet our guests."

Bonnie stared in surprise as Elijah came forward with the other woman on his arm. He _had_ said 'sisters' before, she realized. But Bonnie had mentally corrected that, thinking she had either misheard him or he misspoke. She had automatically assumed that the other woman, dressed in a floor-length elegant black and white gown, and short bob-cut blonde hair, was Elijah's dinner date.

But as the woman stepped closer, her features became clearer and the resemblance was undeniable. She looked like both an older version of Rebecca, and a feminine version of Elijah. There was even a hint of their choleric brother, Klaus himself, around her eyes.

And… Bonnie realized with a thrill of shock as she felt the aura rippling out of her… this woman was a witch.

"May I present, my dear sister and oldest sibling."

"Freya Mikaelson," she said, her voice low and sombre. She took Bonnie's hand and even though Bonnie had already expected it, it was still alarming to feel the wave of power that rippled out of the woman.

Not just a witch but an extremely powerful one. Her magic was old, and refined. The kind of magic that Bonnie usually felt from much, much older witches. But Freya Mikaelson couldn't have been much older than Bonnie. She certainly didn't look older than _Elijah_.

"Bonnie Bennett," Bonnie replied with equal formality, shaking firmly.

"It's a great honour to meet you, Bonnie Bennett. I knew your ancestor."

While Bonnie's head was still reeling, Freya greeted each of the others in turn. When she walked back to the table, Bonnie exchanged discreet glances with her friends.

Yep, they looked just as thrown as Bonnie felt.

Where the hell did the Mikaelsons get a _witch_ sister from?

Had Stefan known? If he had, and he hadn't told them…

"Can we eat already?" Rebecca moaned, swaying near the table. "I'm starving."

"Please have your seats and forgive my sister's ill manners," Elijah said gravely as he led the Mystic Falls trio to the table. There were placeholders for eight seats. He helped Bonnie to the seat on the right of the head of the table, then Caroline on the same row, two spaces down. He turned to place Matt, but Rebecca had already plopped him across Caroline, and grabbed the seat beside him. Elijah shook his head in disapproval. To Bonnie's surprise, he took the seat between her and Caroline, and not the one at the head of the table.

But first, he helped Freya Mikaelson into the large ornate chair that was clearly meant as the head seat.

Rebecca must have noticed the surprise on the faces of the Mystic Falls's contingent because she said, laughing. "Freya sits on the big boss's chair because she's the oldest."

Caroline grinned. "What does Klaus think of that? Because I clearly remember him presiding over the table in your house at Mystic Falls, even when Elijah was present?"

Rebecca grinned and she took a swig of a glass that might have been red wine or might have been blood. "Why do you think Klaus isn't here anymore?"

There was a sudden, uncomfortable silence as palpable tension seemed to run through the table.

"Rebecca," Elijah warned.

"What?" she asked brightly but her eyes caught Freya's blank gaze and she fell silent.

Bonnie felt her eyebrows disappearing into her head. She glanced over at her friends.

She could practically read the question on their faces.

 _What is going on?_

Matt cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Er… who're we waiting for?" He gestured at the empty space at the end of the table, and the one across from Bonnie.

Rebecca looked puzzled. "I thought we were only expecting one more?"

Elijah glanced at his watch. "At this point, it seems we're expecting no more. Freya, dear, perhaps we should..."

"… wait for five more minutes, and then we'll eat," she said firmly.

Elijah fell silent.

Caroline's eyes were almost falling out of her head. Bonnie suspected that she probably looked the same. She had never seen Elijah so differential to anyone, not even Klaus.

There was a short silence. In all the elaborate formality of their welcome and the seating, Bonnie had been too preoccupied to be nervous. But now that they just sat there, silent and waiting, her nerves returned with a vengeance. The butterflies had left, probably sucked through the gaping hole that had formed somewhere in her middle.

Her mouth was dry again, and she took a sip of water discreetly. Her ears were ringing, she realized as she swallowed. It was like if a bell was being pulled somewhere far away, and yet in her head. What was wrong with her?

This wasn't just nerves, she realized with alarm.

 _No. No way._

"So, Miss Forbes," Freya intoned, turning her skewering gaze at Caroline – and helpfully breaking the alarming turn of Bonnie's thoughts.

"Yes?" Caroline asked, her voice going slightly high.

"I've been told that you were romantically involved with my younger brother, Klaus."

"I… I was?"

"Don't be alarmed," Freya continued, in extremely alarming tones. "I make it my business to know of the women in my brothers' lives. Having been away from them for so long, I find I have a lot to catch up on. And a lot to correct."

Caroline blanched.

"So enlighten me, Miss Forbes. Although, I have done considerable research into your character."

"You've what?"

Rebecca coughed a laugh into her glass. Matt scowled. Bonnie tried to take a sip of wine but it spilled on the table cloth, her hands were shaking that badly. She twisted out a grateful smile at the steward that came near to mop it, and discreetly put her hands under the table, and locked them together.

 _This isn't happening._

 _It can't._

She forced herself to concentrate on what Freya was saying.

"Nothing in great depth. Just the basics. Your family background, your personality, your ambitions, your romantic history. The last is unusually lengthy, isn't it? Even, I daresay, for a woman born in this century."

" _W-what?_ "

"Oh, thank goodness, he's here!" Elijah exclaimed, rising to his feet.

Freya frowned up at him. "Elijah, surely you know how much I dislike being interrupted?"

"Forgive me, dear sister," he murmured, "but I just wanted to prepare you."

Freya sighed and gave Caroline one last once-over before she deigned to let Elijah help her to her feet. "I suppose so. Miss Forbes, we shall continue our conversation later."

"Er… I don't think so," Caroline muttered, but low, under her breath.

Freya clearly didn't hear as she continued, "Dear guests, please remain seated. He was, after all, late. You're not a guest, Rebecca." The last was an order.

"Who?" Rebecca grumbled, getting to her feet with what seemed like a great deal of effort.

Bonnie could have told her. If her heart wasn't running like a racehorse and her head wasn't shouting the same phrase over and over again.

 _Oh no._

Slowly, reluctantly, she turned to see.

Did a double take.

"Regent, how good of you to come," Freya Mikaelson said, walking with her arms outstretched to greet the tall, strikingly good-looking man that stood at the entrance of the courtyard. He wore an impeccable suit, the white shirt a crisp contrast to his dark skin and piercing gaze. When his eyes landed on Freya, his austere face softened into a smile.

"Freya. How are you?" he murmured, as they exchanged air kisses.

The acute disappointment that hit Bonnie almost dazed her.

"Bonnie?" Matt whispered.

She tilted her chin, and gave him a bright, sharp smile, furious with him for almost drawing attention to her agitation, but not as furious as she was for letting herself slip, lose her composure like that over…

 _Nothing._

 _My mind is playing tricks on me. Or my magic is off. I'm now imagining things. Oh no. Did I make a mistake? Should I have let Stefan come along?_

 _Can I pull this off when I'm already falling apart?_

Behind her, the newcomer was saying, "I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting," he explained. "It was entirely due to-"

"Me, apparently. Sorry, I'm late. I didn't want to come."

Bonnie turned so fast that her neck cracked.

Kai was walking down the steps. His eyes were scanning the room, as if searching for something. When they met hers, he froze, his face a maelstrom of emotions.

Then his face cleared, so quickly and abruptly, it was like a slate board being swiped down by an invisible hand. He turned to his hosts with an easy smile on his face.

"But now that I'm here… What's for dinner?"

* * *

 **A/N** : Kudos to the amazing keenan24 who proof-read this, all 29K + words of it. You're a superhero.

I'm almost surprised that ff-net let me upload this as a single chapter. If you managed to read all this in one sitting, then you deserve a medal. I hope this (kinda) makes up for leaving this story abandoned for the whole of summer. So much for resolutions, right? What can I say, it looks like I'm only creative when I have deadlines breathing down my back. Anyway, you know the drill. :D If you loved this chapter, or even fairly liked it, all 29K + words of it, please review so that I'll know that people haven't given up on this LOOOOOONG shadowy tale. ;) (Ugh. Sorry, bad pun).


	14. 14

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

* * *

 _June 2013_

It was getting harder to fight it – the drag, the thirst. His teeth hurt, canines protruding out of his gums. And the thirst… He was hungry. So hungry.

She shouldn't be here.

 _I'm not going anywhere._

Did she say it out loud or just in his head? He could hear her voice chanting. The same spell over and over again. He had tried to explain it to her, when she caught him, kept him from smashing his head into the floor. Tried to warn her what it would mean. But he wasn't sure he had got everything out. She seemed to know what to do though, pushing him onto the floor, finding his bag and arranging the candles just so, then sitting across from him, her hands clasped around his elbows.

Their foreheads touched now; try as he might not to put his entire weight on her, he couldn't help it. It was all he could do not to collapse completely into her arms – or worse, give into the increasingly demanding urges that kept flashing through him in waves.

Ravenous. Hunger. They needed – he needed – he needed release.

Bonnie whimpered against him, and he felt his heart slam. They had to stop. He couldn't bear it. He couldn't do this with anyone. Especially _her_.

Her magic was too near, her blood was too near, and above underneath everything, his own basic _wanting_ was ripping him into half. He couldn't hold on. It was too much. She needed to leave.

 _I said I'm not going anywhere._

She sounded angry then, even though he still wasn't sure whether he could hear her words or her thoughts. And finally, finally, he felt it – the black magic slipping out of him, not in chaotic splashes, but in a steady, flowing stream – and into her.

His vision cleared enough and he could see her face so near his own, furrowed brow, delicate features, her lashes fluttering against her cheeks as her bow-shaped mouth murmured out the words of the spell. A bead of sweat dripped to the edge of her chin and hovered. All he had to do was turn his head a little, flick out his tongue and he'd lick it off.

 _Enough!_ he cried, and his hands came to clasp hard at her elbows.

Her eyes flew open, red leaching into the green, and she snarled.

He needed to act quickly; or she would be too far gone. His hands slid from her elbows to her shoulders, pulling and pushing now so that they acted as one continuous conduit of dark and light. Above them, the two rings started spinning rapidly, gathering around each a thick ball of blackness.

The last thing he saw was one start slowing down, all but buried in its black cloud, before he passed out.

When he opened his eyes, he was staring into large green eyes, tinted with red. She was gaping over him, her veins throbbing with thirst.

He didn't even need to think.

He tilted his neck back, offering. It was sheer instinct to yield to her. For a few heartbeats, he thought she would take – she leaned over him, her breath warm and wet against his skin and his whole body clenched in anticipation. If anyone had told him a few weeks ago that he would almost come from desperately wanting someone to rip through his throat…

But, with a cry, she scrambled to her feet and rushed to the other side of the room.

He leaned on his elbow and watched her.

Panic and horror filled her face. "Am I… Am I?"

"No, you're not. It's just their magic. It will pass," he told her as gently as he could, feeling his heart throb in sympathy. He knew how it felt – that first surge of horror, the alien thirst, the unnaturalness of it all. He didn't know how it felt for mundanes, but for a witch it would be horrifying. Not even the rush of power could make this worthwhile. It was almost enough to feel some sympathy for the heretics.

Almost.

His answer didn't seem to relieve her. Her eyes were flying around her, moving rapidly. They hurt, he knew. There was too much light, too much sharpness. He watched and waited until they landed back on him. Saw her teeth start descending. Her fingers flew to her mouth and she whimpered.

"That would pass, too."

"Why do I feel so hungry?" she whispered.

Ah. That might… need a little help.

He held out his wrist without hesitating. "Drink."

* * *

 _June 2013_

For a long time afterwards, Kai would wonder how much had been real and how much of it had been part of the fevered dream that the heretics's souls crashing through his own, had caused. He had been obsessed with her for so long, his feelings metamorphosing with his pscyhe, that it won't have been so far off the imagination that in the throes of that dark ritual, his mind had conjured up that erotic scenario. As someone who had always self-identified as a witch – regardless of how often he had been reminded growing up that he wasn't technically one – being a vampire had zero appeal to him. Logically, he could understand the advantages of being a heretic, but his encounters with that particular evolution of the supernatural had left him permanently repulsed.

But in those hours where he and Bonnie were wrapped around each other, canines buried into flesh, sharing blood and magic… it was hard not to see the allure.

If it had really happened, that is. When he woke up, she was already pulling away and he had watched her brush off the whole thing like if it had never happened. She had risked her life and her sanity to save his – a man that she repeatedly reminded anyone who cared to know that she loathed. And she had acted like it was nothing. Just like it was nothing to her, to return to 1903 and rescue him from half a dozen blood-and-magic-thirsty heretics. Just like it had been nothing to her to throw away her magic, and potentially her life, to keep him trapped in the 1994 prison world. All for the sake of his sisters and a coven that had done nothing for her.

So she woke up in the arms of her enemy after erotically blood-sharing with him for hours? No big deal.

Just another day in the life of Bonnie Bennett.

"So you're saying that the merge cured your sociopathy? Like a humanity-off switch in reverse?"

Kai winced. Of course, she'd go for the hard questions first. No toe-dipping for Bonnie Bennett. Dive straight into the deep end of his fractured psyche.

He studied her where she sat primly on the sofa. She was a strange sort of psychiatrist with her barely touched can in one hand and her Miss Cuddles resting against her side. She was breathtaking as ever but also slightly worse for wear in her days old jeans and jacket. At least their clothes were clean. His perfunctory dry-cleaning spell had taken out most of the filth; and he had even salvaged a makeshift t-shirt and shorts from the sad scrapes of his monkey suit. They looked like rags to him but considering what went for fashion in this day and age, he was positively trendy.

He smirked a little now, remembering how her eyes had widened when he had whispered a few words and the remnants of their ritual: the candles, the exhausted rings, his sister's knife – Bonnie's eyes had tracked the knife, but to his surprise, she hadn't challenged him for it – and chalk marks had all been swept into their appropriate compartments in the magic tool-bag of sorts he kept in the room's closet.

For someone who had rightfully - if not tactfully - guessed that he would know domestic magic, Bonnie had seemed impressed, even though she had tried to hide it.

She wasn't trying to hide her skepticism as she queried him now. Her eyes were narrowed, her whole body language shouting disbelief. Beside her, Miss Cuddles looked equally suspicious.

But Bonnie - and the stupid bear - were there.

Kai hadn't really believed her when she said she wanted to hear his story. Had expected her to finish her can, rescue her bear, laugh in his face, and flounce off. Yet she had remained. She was querying him, and not making her own disparaging conclusions. Her eyes might spark with suspicion but they were focused on him, waiting for him to answer.

Even now, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He was tired. He sat with his back to the foot of the bed, one leg stretched out while the other was bent so he could rest the arm swinging a beer can on it. It was all he could do not to dip forward, rest his head. Or better yet, just roll over to his side and shut his eyes, give his body leave to succumb to utter exhaustion. He was still aching from being battered, broken and somewhat fixed, both magically and physically, in such a condensed period of time. Every now and then, a tremor would rip through him, and he'd lock his jaw against the moan of pain. She had helped him tear out the auras of the heretics from his soul, but he was a siphon. He could feel her essence now, pure and untainted; but the remnants of unnatural magic would go a few more rounds through him, each one feeling like the equivalent of getting his insides yanked out.

He was most definitely too tired for this conversation.

But if Bonnie Bennett was giving him the chance to tell his story, he wasn't going to be the idiot that asked for a rain check.

"I was sixteen when I got my first diagnosis. My parents finally clued in that being a defective abomination of a siphon was just one of the many things wrong with me. They took me to a lot of fancy doctors who said the same thing. I have a paper that says approximately where on the antisocial personality disorder spectrum I lie."

Reflexively, the hand holding his beer can twitched. "I was diagnosed late but with the right lifestyle adjustments, there was nothing stopping me from living a 'fully functional life as a productive member of society'." His voice drawled with mockery - mostly self-directed - as he repeated the words from memory.

Bonnie snorted. "Have you checked up on any of your old therapists since you got back? Someone could write a research topic on you. What Not To Do To Fix A Sociopath."

He turned away from her taunting gaze. He was tempted to tell her that he had almost killed his mother before he was born - almost drained her to death while in the womb. He had been called an abomination for as long as he could remember, isolated from Jo, and the rest of his family until he got his powers under control.

His parents had started early to train him to siphon at will, but they were hopelessly at sea on what do with him. In the end, he had had to figure it out by trial and error. He shouldn't have had to. None of them should have had to. If he and the rest of the siphoners weren't treated like dirty, little secrets, the coven would have figured, in its millennia of existence, a safe way of raising siphoners. How much of his ASD was tied to his upbringing had never been something that bothered him in the past, but he thought of it more and more of late. It wasn't exactly something he could ask a mundane psychologist, so he was left to his own brooding theories about that.

He didn't say any of this to Bonnie, though. There was nothing he could tell her that would deserve her sympathy; rather, she'd probably think he was making excuses and despise him further.

Anyway, he didn't need her to feel sorry for him. Why should she when he didn't feel sorry for himself? He might not have had the most idyllic upbringing, but he had learnt early on to give as good as he got. His family had hated and feared him, and soon enough, he more than earned both.

So there was only the slightest bitterness in his voice when he said, "The therapy was sound. It's improved a lot over the years, but even back then, they had some good ideas. The problem was with me. I wasn't in the least interested in being a productive member of society."

"Because your parents weren't going to let you merge with Jo?"

"Mostly because I was a dick," he said bluntly. Too bluntly, if her flinch was any indication. He shook his can nervously. "It took me a long time to figure out why they kept having kids, why Jo and I weren't put on the leadership track – early training, fostership, Envoy-apprenticeship and all that jazz. I knew it had to do with the fact that I was - am - a siphoner. But I stupidly assumed that my parents just wanted that hidden until the Merge, where I'd either gain Jo's powers or I'd die. I didn't think they weren't ever going to let us merge at all … until our twenty-second birthday came and went, the excuses stopped adding up, and I finally clued in."

He closed his eyes, as a wave of memory assailed him. Children's screams. Blood on the walls. His own hands swinging that bat anywhere and everywhere it could land on Joey, again and again and again.

A tremor ripped through him; unprepared, his back arched and he groaned low in his throat. The ceiling overhead swam red.

"Kai!"

It was gone as suddenly as it came. He collapsed against the footboard, blinking hard until his vision cleared. When he lifted his head, she was crouched beside him, her eyes large and worried. For him? Or for his coven? Or for herself, stuck here with him and the possibility that he might snap in more ways than one?

Her eyes were so green, he thought helplessly. So large and green. He wondered how it would feel to drown in them. Felt a wave of pain at the thought that he probably would always do just that -

Wonder.

"Are you OK?" she asked.

The words were uttered grudgingly, like if she resented being made to ask.

But she had asked.

His heart clenched with gratitude. He looked down before he made it even more fucking obvious than it already was.

"I'm fine," he said hoarsely.

"Look," Bonnie fidgeted uncertainly; then she rocked backwards, "we're both beat. We can do this some other…"

"No!" He looked up quickly, pulling himself back into position. His beer can had fallen, rolled away from him, droplets of alcohol staining the floor. He reached for it but she got to it first, handing it over to him. Their fingers barely brushed, a whisper of skin touching skin, but it was enough to make him freeze, a charge rocking through him.

Her eyes widened and she jumped to her feet. "Kai…"

"Maybe I was wrong about my parents," he said hastily, deliberately, making his voice firm. She regarded him uncertainly but he went on. "Maybe I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt. They probably didn't think I'd live long enough to be a candidate for the Merge. Most siphoners die young anyway. Out of the few that make it to adulthood, a good number choose to slip away from the coven, disappear into the mundane world. When I was sixteen, my mom sat me down with one of her Envoy buds. Gave me a talk about options." He chuckled. "Sort of like 'The Talk'. But about siphoners, not sex."

He almost bit off his tongue. He could feel the red creeping up his face, flooding it all the way to the tips of his ears. That was _not_ what he should be referring to, no matter obliquely, in the presence of Bonnie Bennett.

She had sat back in the sofa when he started talking, folding herself back into her formerly prim posture beside her bear, all the while watching him warily. Now she started, her eyes popping and her face flushing a soft, rosy pink.

"I…I mean…" he floundered. He was rarely ever at a loss for words. Usually, his problem was the opposite. But just as usually, when words did fail him - they tended to do so around her.

"That's…" She cleared her throat "... an interesting metaphor."

But when she stopped rolling her eyes, he noticed they were twinkling. Her mouth was twitching, too, as if she wanted to laugh.

Surprised, he grinned back tentatively.

Their eyes caught and held; and their smiles faded. Her eyes darkened and he felt his breath catch. Was she remembering earlier? Being so wrapped up in each other that they couldn't tell where one began and the other ended? Feeling the barrier of their clothes like sandpaper between skin? Wanting to burn away everything that separated him from her? Wanting to bury more than teeth inside her? He would have. If he had been just a little more far gone, he would have.

And in her state, she would have let him. Hated him afterwards, he thought, his heart thumping. But it would have happened.

Her face closed like shutters. "What were your options?" she asked harshly.

Too late, he realized that his face was too open, his longing too obvious.

 _Ouch_.

He ducked his head so she won't see the grimace on his face. It was hard to decide what was more bitter - her clear rebuttal or the answer to her question.

"The usual," he said finally. "Mundane college. Mundane jobs. They could cast a few spells. Pull a few strings. The coven doesn't acknowledge the existence of siphoners. We don't even record them in our annals. But we don't mind calling in a few favours now and then. And there are always one or two siphoners who've established themselves in the mundane world, that are all too eager to take in the fellow rejects."

His mother hadn't started out so directly. She had painted the rosy picture of non-magical existence in broad hints. When Kai had finally cut through all her bull, and made it clear that he wasn't interested in any of those 'options', she had become more… direct. Her envoy buddy, who had also been Kai's Uncle Martin, had even outted out his own son, Jules in their misguided attempt to convince Kai. Apparently, Jules had taken the highway to Mundane Land and was doing well for himself there. Kai had had his suspicions about his distant cousins for a long time; more so, after Jules vanished from coven gatherings after his own sixteenth birthday, but Kai hadn't known until then that the older boy was a siphoner.

It hadn't made any difference to him. All Kai's life, he had been told that he was nothing without magic. The only thing he lived for was the day he either got his own magic, or he died trying.

There were no other 'options' for him.

"Some siphoners can't give up on magic. They hunt for a cure, or for some eternal source of power they can draw from." He laughed suddenly. "Looks like the heretics did find that eternal source of power. Hefty price tag, but dem's the breaks. You know, until I met one, I never believed they existed? I thought they were bedtime stories told to frighten little witches into good behavior. Which, I guess, was the whole point. The coven won't want siphoners looking to be turned and become indestructible killing monsters who eat magic. So chalk that up as one more reason why siphoners are feared and loathed."

"So because you were feared and loathed, and they didn't let you become leader, you chose to be your worst self. Got it."

His insides writhed at Bonnie's brisk, matter-of-fact tone. But he deserved that. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Pretty much."

"And now?" she prompted. "What's changed? Since you merged with Luke and got his emotions…"

"I know I've got his empathy," Kai corrected. "But where he starts and I begin…" He struggled to explain, not just to her, but to himself. "Every Praetor that's written an account of the Merge has tried to explain this, and every one, without fail, has concluded with an 'can't put it into words; you've just gotta be there'. The first few days were insane. I could feel him rattling in my head. You know how you have a Jiminy Cricket in your head? Well, I had two - Luke's and mine for a long time."

"Luke became your conscience?"

He snorted. "Nothing that simple. That voice went after a few days. Or maybe I've become so used to it, I can't tell the difference between his and mine." He struggled again. "I have Luke's magic, but it's no longer his, it's mine. It feels like mine and I should know, because I've lived all my life stealing other people's magic. This one belongs to me. Yet… I'm still a siphon. No one usually gets to be both…"

He almost stopped here, embarrassed. His confusing thoughts were barely intelligible to him. Goodness knows what she'd make of his rantings. But when he snuck a glance at her, she was leaning forward, her eyes keen. So he went on.

"I have his empathy. But am I still a sociopath? Empathy isn't magic. As a siphon, I could always borrow magic. Even for just a little while. As a sociopath, I couldn't 'borrow' empathy. I learned how to read people, figured out how they ticked. Long before I got my diagnosis, I was already teaching myself to imitate normative social behavior to 'pass'. But it was just that - an imitation. An act. A performance. I despised people for falling for it. I despised people. Full stop."

He sighed heavily. He didn't fail to notice the way her hand clenched around her bear, the way her body tensed.

"Now… imagine being a mundane who suddenly gets magic. Your brain is still wired to be a mundane. When it gets dark, your first instinct is to flick a switch; then your next instinct is to look for matches; you have to actively process and reject those mundane knee-jerk responses, before you think of using magic to turn on the lights."

"And that's what you do now? You struggle against being a sociopath?"

"I struggle against apathy. Sometimes it's just easier not to care, you know? To turn it off. I see someone rushing to the elevator, and I have to think and decide if I should hold it open, or just let it slam on his face."

To his surprise, a tiny smile flickered across her face. "You and everyone else."

He stared at her. "Really?"

"It's called being a person, Kai. Everyone struggles against their selfish, petty instincts."

"I thought that was just post-merge me."

"That's because you've never bothered struggling against your selfish, petty instinct before," she explained icily. "You've just done whatever you wanted without thinking about how it affected other people."

 _Ouch._

There was a terse moment as she turned her face away, and he watched her mouth working silently, as if she was biting back words.

When she finally spoke, her question was surprising. "If your father knew that this was going to happen, that the merge would change you, why didn't he just let it? I mean, between Jo and Luke… Heaven rest his soul." She floundered, confused.

"He's not dead," Kai offered, unhelpfully. He resisted the urge to laugh at her irritated look.

"What I mean is if Luke did this…" She waved her hand in his general direction "… to you, then Jo almost certainly would have, eighteen years ago. The soul-merging thing works every-time, doesn't it? It worked for your father and his twin. Why didn't he think it would work for you? I mean, you had nowhere to go but up, personality-wise. Why did he try so hard to prevent you from Merging?"

He gave her a side-ways glare for the sneaked in barb. She blinked back innocently.

' _Well?'_ her gamine face dared. _'I'm not wrong, am I?'_

Kai conceded defeat with a shrug. "Who knows?"

He certainly didn't. For weeks post-Merge, he had asked himself that question over and over again; but when he had finally got the chance to ask Joshua himself, that first time after he returned from 1903 and sought out his father, Kai had chickened out. He and Joshua had talked about the future of the coven, initiating Kai properly as Praetor, winning over the Elders, recalling the exiles, persuading the Council and the Envoys to swear allegiance to him.

They hadn't spoken about the past.

Kai wasn't sure anymore if he wanted to know the answer. Didn't want to know how much of his parents' decisions about his life were based on the coven's prejudices against siphons and how much were based on Kai's own abhorrent personality.

Even now, Kai wasn't sure if Joshua believed he had changed, that he had good intentions for the Coven … or if his father was just biding his time to undermine him - or worse.

He could almost read the thoughts off Bonnie's face. She was probably asking herself the same thing.

"One day, he's ready to kill Jo to keep you in your prison world, and the next moment, he's handing you the keys to the Kingdom." She pointed out. "What changed? How did you win him over? How are you so sure you did?"

He chuckled involuntarily, startled. Even though he had already guessed where her thoughts were, this was too close by half.

"I have no idea," he admitted. "I can only guess that since my life is tied permanently to the coven for the next twenty-two years at least, he didn't have a choice but to accept the fact that he and I would need to at least coexist for the coven to survive."

She frowned. "Well, he can't have any complaints. You've been rising to the occasion so far." She set her jaw, didn't quite meet his eyes; it couldn't have been more obvious how unwillingly the words were coming out of her. "It couldn't have been easy, fighting for the same coven that locked you up in the first place."

Oh hell. That was high praise from Bonnie Bennett, delivered as grudgingly and angrily as it was. It must have been like pulling teeth for her to have said it. And the fucking nuisance of the thing was that he couldn't even enjoy it.

Instead when she squinted at him, he looked at the disapproving Miss Cuddles, his throat thick with the lump of guilt that threatened to choke him.

He swallowed hard. "Or maybe," he said harshly, "just maybe, I hated the heretics more than I ever hated my coven. The heretics took what they needed from me to wake, then they took what they needed for me to get strong, then they took my magic because heck, that's what we do. We're siphoners. We _take_. I could understand. A hundred years as a magic-starved, dried-up husk and I'd not have much table manners either. Then when they were back to their normal, creepy selves, they quickly figured out what I was - the Praetor of their beloved, prodigal Gemini coven. And that was when the fun really started."

As if on cue, a tremor hit him then. He rode it through, shutting his eyes so that she won't see the redness. In those few seconds where his world was black, he could almost imagine he was back in Winter 1903. He could almost taste the falling snow. Smell iron from his own blood. Even their faces, all six of them - Iceman, Cherokee, Medusa, Scarface, Gingerdum and Gingerdee - seemed to float above him, distorted little floating heads.

"Kai… Kai!"

He opened his eyes to stare into her stricken face. She was by his side again, her eyes filled with worry. "What is wrong with you? Didn't the ritual…"

"I'm fine," he said hastily.

"Are you… because what we did…" He watched, fascinated, as she swallowed hard, her face turning rosy. It was the first time she was verbally acknowledging what had happened between them. His eyes fell to her lips, watched with something like horror as she bit softly through the plump lower flesh. "… it was almost like dark magic."

 _Can't I get to kiss her, just once?_ He thought suddenly, almost violently, staring hungrily at her mouth. Perhaps if he did it very quickly, she might not even notice it had happened?

"Kai!" she said sharply.

And he started, staring guiltily at her. She had shifted back, her whole body wary.

He swallowed hard, his chest rising and falling. "I…"

"What's wrong with you?" She asked again, less concern and more accusation.

"I'm fine," he repeated, schooling his words, his thoughts, his errant feelings. "It wasn't dark magic. It was just… intense. And it worked. You're all right, aren't you?"

She nodded slowly.

"And so am I. I'm just… taking a little trip down recent memory lane, circa 1903." He grinned at her.

She shuddered, no doubt remembering her own ghastly experience of winter wonderland with heretics.

She had no idea.

Giving his torturers nicknames had been his attempt to assert some form of mental defiance to them. A means of exerting control over the living hell his life had become. But he knew that given time, they would have broken him. It had become a game to them, bringing the vaunted Praetor to his knees.

He glanced at Bonnie. She was sitting with her hands clenched in her lap, her eyes wide in her stricken face.

He glanced down. His eyes fell on Miss Cuddles whom had apparently got knocked to the floor when Bonnie moved, and now glared at him angrily. Kai sighed again.

"You'd think that we'd have all bonded as ex-rejects together, but they resented the fact that I got to be leader, got magic without sacrificing my humanity. You know two of them were from my direct lineage? First cousins to some great-grand-Parker. They might even have been Praetor if they had been born different. So they didn't just punish me for being the new leader of the coven that treated them like dirt and imprisoned them. They punished me for basically being them, and getting a better hand at life. Oh, and for shits and giggles. "

When he lifted his gaze, Bonnie's eyes were full.

"Stop it," he said roughly.

Bonnie blinked, swallowed. "Stop what?"

It infuriated him - the mutinous guilt that she was practically radiating. He didn't deserve it. Maybe he had once, but not anymore.

"Stop feeling sorry for me. That's not what this is about. My coven punished me because I was a psychopath who murdered his brothers and sisters. I didn't have to do it. I wanted Liv and Luke dead because they threatened me but the other four… I killed them out of spite, malice, rage, call it what you like. 18 years in solitary confinement was barely adequate punishment. Four victims. Four separate sentences. If they had given me to the mundane authorities, they'd have locked me up and thrown away the key. Heck, compared to 18 years in maximum security prison, my weeks with the heretics was practically a vacation," he spat.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to understand why I fought the heretics. Even with all that perspective, I still wanted to get even. I wanted to take each of their skulls between my palms, crush them until the blood and brains and magic flowed out, then suck out their souls until there was nothing left."

He didn't even realize he was demonstrating just how with his hands until she recoiled. He dropped his hands at once, glared at her defiantly. "Saving my coven was a fringe benefit. Plus I can't be a King without a fucking Kingdom, can I?"

Her gaze was disbelieving. "Are you trying to make me hate you?" She sounded angry; and that pesky guilt that had been written all over her earlier was mostly gone.

Good.

"I don't need your fucking pity."

Bonnie almost choked over her laughter. "You aren't ever going to get it."

"Fine."

"Fine.

She got to her feet, and he felt his heart slamming in his chest. What was wrong with him? He finally had her here, listening to him, giving him a chance, and he was what? Chasing her away?

It frightened him. _She_ frightened him. She had so much power over him, she had no idea. It was one thing to pine over someone who hated him. It was another thing to have her treat him like some kind of pet project – someone to 'understand' and 'forgive' and 'redeem' and all that fucking crap.

He wasn't going to be her new Damon.

She grabbed her bear from the floor. He tried not to look, he really did, but her butt was just there and it was in tight jeans.

And it cheered him up immensely.

When she turned around to face him, he quickly smoothened off the stupid grin from his face.

She must have caught a hint of it, because her eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Nothing," he said hastily.

"Mmm…" She didn't look convinced, but she apparently decided to let it go. "Thanks for the food… and the rescue… I guess."

"I rescued you. You rescued me right back. We're even," he said dully.

The corner of her lip curled. "And the food?"

"I'll send you your half of the bill."

Surprised laughter burst out of her, and he felt a small grin cross his face. For a moment, they just stared at each, half-amused, half-confused.

Fucking hell, he wasn't ready to watch Bonnie Bennett walk out on him.

"You owe me for the answers though," he blurted out, desperately.

She cocked an eyebrow. "I do?"

"Fair's fair."

She crossed her arms. "What do you want to know that you didn't already find out eavesdropping on me and Damon in 1994?"

He choked back an incredulous laugh. What _didn't_ he want to know about Bonnie Bennett? It was a task to just figure out where to start. He settled on the first thing that came to mind:

"Y-you said that your life was on pause in freshman year because of the whole… Anchor … thing."

Her face fell. He felt a sting of sympathy that he hadn't felt when he had – as she rightfully accused – overheard her say this in 1994 in one of the rare occasions the self-absorbed Salvatore let her get in a word in between his soliloquys.

"Go on," she said quietly.

He bit his lip. "You couldn't decide a college major, or think about the future. Not when you felt being Anchor had an expiration date. Now, you've got a second chance at a fully, realized life. What are you going to do with it? What are your plans?"

She shrugged, leaned against a column. "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm still figuring things out."

"Why does 'figuring things out' sound so much like 'I haven't given this any thought'?"

She crinkled her nose at him. "It could also be a euphemism for 'mind your own business'. Tough, isn't it, not being able to sneak around and spy on people."

He ignored the barb. How could he not when he was dumbstruck by her face? She was so cute, she had no idea.

"Can I go now?"

 _No_. Not just because he loathed to see her leave - or thought it was vaguely unfair of her to dodge the mild question when he'd done more than his share of self-revelation. He wanted to pull at that thread until it unraveled. Her future mattered more to him than he cared to admit. Worse, he had a sneaking suspicion that it mattered more to him than it apparently did to her.

Which got him thinking about…

"How the heck did that even happen in the first place?" When she blinked at him, he elaborated. "You and a vampire in my Prison World. I mean, I know the timeline, the cause and effect. The Other Side collapsing. Your year as Anchor. Dying to bring _Jeremy Gilbert_ back to life."

He did his best, he really did, but his teeth seemed to grind together of their own volition when he grated out the other guy's name; and from Bonnie's narrowed gaze, she noticed.

"I mean, granted, your b-boyfriend was willing to condemn himself to oblivion to save you on your birthday so it's obviously you guys' 'thing'. Although I wonder at that. Isn't that's a bit too much commitment for high-school sweethearts? If y'all dying for each other now, how're you ever going to top that a year into his fancy-smanty arts school? You've got to learn to pace these things-"

Her sigh, loud with irritation, cut him off. "I don't hear a question, Kai."

Probably because asking point-blank ' _are you still dating Jeremy Gilbert?_ ' didn't sound as casual and disinterested as he'd like. He avoided her gaze.

The Hunter had left town shortly after his and Kai's shared adventure on Bonnie's birthday. There had been a time when Kai wondered if Bonnie won't even return from 1994 to Mystic Falls, and just make a beeline to wherever Jeremy was. Or leave shortly after her arrival. But she had come back to Mystic Falls, and remained there. Jeremy Gilbert hadn't returned either. Hadn't showed up for his guardian's wedding either.

"Kai…"

He gulped and backtracked to a safer topic. "I know _how_ you ended up in 1994. I just can't figure out _why_. In my experience… Bennetts might defy wicca convention in dealings with _bestia nefundus_ \- magical creatures," he explained, noticing her puzzled frown, "but in recent times, your family cultivated a high sense of self-preservation. So I guess my question is, what the heck happened to make you… _you._ "

"What kind of question is that?" she asked quietly, sinisterly.

It was his turn to blink. "A valid one. One that you should answer to me, or to a shrink or a priest, now that I think about it." Because seriously, had she _seen_ her life? "It seems to me that your mother upping and leaving while you were a kid caused some kind of trauma…"

"You're the one with the fucking medical condition, not me," she snarled.

"Woah!" He started at the venom. "I was just ask-"

"Mind your business, Kai." She pushed off the column, every indication that she was ready to barge out of there.

"Hold on a sec," he stretched out his hand, not touching but enough to make her pause. "You get to delve into my childhood trauma but yours is off-bounds?"

"You think?" she snapped.

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"It's not tit for tat," she retorted. "Welcome to the non-sociopathic existence where you don't get your curiosity satisfied by barter system."

Despite his genuine sense of outrage, he almost chuckled. "OK, now that's just being petty."

She shrugged.

"You're really not going to answer any of my questions?" He pressed, still finding it hard to believe. "After I just literally unburdened my entire life to you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nope." But her mouth twitched a little. Apparently, her earlier affront had given way to smugness.

" _Bonnie…"_

" _Kai_... Not happening. So are we done here? Because I don't know about you but I'd like to get a shower, and wear something besides two days's old clothes. I need to get back to my place-"

He started, his thoughts spinning.

"You never told me what you were looking for in my apartment today."

Her jaw dropped. "Oh."

"Oh?" Kai mocked, bellying his own far-from-composed thoughts. Her stray comment had yanked out that memory. He had kept it at the back of his mind all this while. It had been too much of a distraction. The thought of Bonnie in his flat had done things to him. It still did _things_ to him. He didn't have a chance, would never have a chance with her. But it hadn't stopped him from… wanting. Against his will, against _reason_ , he had wanted. God help him, he still wanted. Even now, after the morning. He wanted her without magic warping her head and his, without alien blood-lust pounding through their bodies. He wanted to know how it felt like to have her willing in his arms, her own magic mating with his own. And the thought of her in his house, in his room, near his bed…

He clenched his fists, fought to get his stupid body under control. In the flimsy rags he was wearing, there was no hiding his physical reaction to her.

"I… I… er…"

He didn't register the guilty way she stammered, the way she took a step back, fidgeted.

Instead, he brutally pushed through his miserably stupid thoughts, and kept asking. "Why were you there? If you were looking for me, you knew where to find me. So you wanted something that you knew you won't get from just asking me. You're not a thief, and even if you were, I'd be the last person you'd want to break into because you've run out of witchy-woo supplies… So what could Kai Parker, full-time Gemini Praetor, part-time persona non grata possibly have, that Bonnie Bennett needed to steal…"

Realization dawned on him and his heart slammed in his chest, his mind racing hard. No. It couldn't be. _But it has to. It's the only thing that makes sense._

 _His locks had been secure. They shouldn't have been able to get out. Unless…_

 _Unless…_

He looked at her then. Really looked at her, and took in her fidgeting, her eyes that didn't quite meet his own, the flush in her face.

Guilt.

"Bon, _what exactly did you do in my apartment?_ "

"What did I do or what was I looking for?" she hedged.

"Just answer the question," he said testily. _She didn't. She won't have…_

Why _would she?_

"What difference does it…" She blew out an irritated breath, and finally stilled, straightening with defiance. "Fine. You want to know the truth? I was looking for the Ascendant."

"Wait… what?" Of all the answers she could have given him, that was the least expected and he was yanked out of the alarming turn of his thoughts. "Why?"

"Why?" She took a step towards him, her eyes flashing with anger.

What the heck did she have to be angry about?

"Because Lily Salvatore had just tried to kill me, that's why."

"What does that have to do with…"

"I'd been having nightmares for weeks. About you and her attacking me. And then the night of Jo's bachelorette party, Lily nearly killed me. I almost died."

That rattled him. Badly. Because he remembered everything about that night. The ripper holding his sister's throat. Bonnie's lifeless body under his hands.

She hadn't _almost_ died that night. _She had died that night._ He had felt it. Known when her heart had stopped. That the vampire's blood wasn't working. And his sister hadn't brought her back with medicine either.

Kai had ran out of that bar feeling like his heart was literally about to shatter out of his body, his head was heavy and he was going to explode with the sheer desolation that had wrecked through his body. And it was that pain, that hollowed out feeling that had sent him hunting down Lily Salvatore.

But even before Damon had deprived him of that, Kai had known that there was no point. Killing a thousand Lily Salvatores would not bring back one Bonnie Bennett. That was not the answer. She was dead, but she was also a witch. Death was not the end. If he had to spend his whole life, use every resource available to him as Praetor to bring her back, then he would. If he had to descend into the belly of the underground itself to drag her back, then he would.

Then Jo called to tell him that Bonnie was alive, awake. To this day, he didn't fully understand how that happened. He was just grateful that it had.

His hands spasmed at his sides now, helpless with the irrational urge to reach out and hold her, run his hands down her skin, feel her warmth, and stupidly reassure himself that yes, she was alive. But she won't welcome his touch, not now, not ever; and he curled his fingers into fists so tight his nails bit his palms.

"And I figured that if the Lily part of my dream came true, it was only a matter of time before you-" She paused.

"I would what, Bonnie?"

She muttered something under her breath.

"What?" he asked, incredulous. She did not say what he thought he heard her say.

"You'd send me back to the Prison World, Kai."

He reeled.

For a moment, he just glared up at her furious face, then he - he couldn't help it – he let out a half-hysterical bark of laughter. He grabbed a fistful of his hair and yelped with pain - the scar from last night was still fresh. She flinched, but he ignored her, jumping to his feet and walking to the other side of the room. Then he turned around and walked back to the bed, opened his mouth to speak, shut it, then did the same thing all over again. He yanked his hair again.

"Kai!" she cried.

He could barely find the words to speak. "Of course, you'd think that. It makes perfect sense. I'm the boogie-man, the monster under your bed, the biggest bad that has ever badded in your long career dealing with big bads."

Bonnie inhaled sharply. "Not the biggest. Just the meanest."

He rounded on her. "I. am. different. now! What the hell do I need to do to prove that to you?"

She raised her hand in a sharp, angry movement. "Enough with the injured victim act, Kai! You know damn well I had my reasons to be afraid of you. To think that you would come after me after I left you in 1903. The same way you stabbed me and left me to die in Portland to get back at me."

"I know how to kill people, Bonnie," he said through ground teeth. "I didn't leave you to die. I left you to wake up and feel as completely abandoned as I did when I woke up after you killed me, and stole my Ascendant and my idea and planned to ditch me-"

She let out her breath in a low whistle. "Wow, that makes me feel so much better."

He growled, pressing his fists into his forehead in frustration. "That's not even – I said I was sorry. I said we were even. Did you remember that part? After you got me back from 1903? Did you remember me telling you what happened on your birthday?" He took a deep breath. "The guy who killed your mom and commits generational genocide gets a second chance. The fucking Ripper of Montreal gets a second chance. _Klaus fucking Mikaelson_ gets a second chance!"

"I have never-"

"I mean, I helped you – against my better judgment – rescue Damon's mother for the 'greater good'. I saved your life and it doesn't count."

Her green eyes were all but spitting fire now. "I didn't know that… You're deliberately misunderstanding me."

"Or wait a minute… it won't count, would it? I saved your life, not the life of Elena, or Damon, or anyone of your vampire friends. Oh snap," he paused dramatically, venom dripping from his voice. "I get it now. The Fast Track to getting on Bonnie Bennett's good side. Doing you a solid is out of the question. What would really get me into your good graces is fucking one of your best friends, won't it?"

" _Shut up!_ "

Her hand flashed out, hitting him so hard that his neck cracked. He turned back, with an angry smirk that he knew would infuriate her - and barely caught the second slap mid-air. "One's the limit," he hissed.

She snarled and her magic slammed into him, shoving him hard against the bed. She followed, her fists opening and closing at her sides as she glared down at him.

"Shut up, or I-"

He raised himself on his elbows at once. "You'll what?"

She didn't answer. Not with her mouth anyway, that she was all but shredding into pieces as she bit her lip, her jaw working furiously to hold back whatever insults she wanted to hurl at him. Perversely, he wished she would just yell at him, and stop doing… that.

It was as much in retaliation and as much in a desperate bid to distract himself from the almost hypnotic sight of her lip biting that he shot back, "Cat got your tongue? Because we both know that's the magic formula, isn't it? Your life and well-being is worthless to you…"

The _Incendia_ actually singed his forehead before he shoved it off, then shoved off the bed to slam into her, pushing her against the wall. Her palms slammed against his chest, and he felt his bones meld.

He laughed maniacally, and gripped her wrists, pulling out the magic of the spell. "You're going to have to be a hella lot faster to hurt me with magic," he snarled. "Do you have any idea what you did when you barged into my-"

He bit back the words in the nick of time. But she didn't notice, too caught up in her own fury.

"Get off me," she yelled. She struggled to yank her hands away, kicking at him with increasing hysteria when he refused to let go. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Her eyes were widening, shining with unshed tears as fear leached into her face, mingling with her anger.

He dropped her hands as if they scalded. Like a switch, all his own anger evaporated, leaving only shame and self-disgust, and he took a step back.

She had been afraid of him siphoning her. So scared of it that she had practically had a panic attack in front of him.

He took another step back, then another, then another. She rubbed across her face in an angry gesture, her breath still choppy and uneven.

He turned away from her, knowing that she won't want him to see her vulnerable. Knowing that the sight of her vulnerability undid him in ways he didn't want her to see either. Just that glimpse already had his stomach twisting into knots, his heart aching behind his chest.

He had done that to her.

It took her a while to catch her breath. "I can't believe I… I can't believe you."

Kai sighed heavily, rubbed his own face wearily. "I wasn't going to siphon you. I will never take your magic from you, Bonnie." He had made sure of that.

She laughed bitterly. "Sure. I'll just take your word for it, then."

He turned back to her. She was leaning against the wall, her arms folded across her chest, her stance defiant but composed. The panic attack of moments ago had passed. Or was deftly covered up with the artfulness of frequent practice.

"I'm sorry," he said brokenly.

"Don't flatter yourself," she spat. "You were not even the first person that ever took my magic away from me. It's not you… It's just…" She sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. "It just reminded me of … everything."

After almost two decades of living in a world with a population of one, figuring out how to navigate the noise and chaos of existing alongside seven billion people had been … challenging for him.

And he had been a sociopath.

Kai could only imagine the kind of trauma Bonnie must have felt - must still be feeling. And that was from the isolation alone, without considering every other crappy thing that had gone on in her life both before, during, and after 1994. Her time as Anchor, half-ghost, half-Ascendant? Or Silas who wore the face of Damon's brother? How far back did _'everything'_ go?

How had she even brought herself to return to 1903? He wondered suddenly. The first time - her motivations were obvious: Damon fucking Salvatore's diabolical manipulation of her with him, Kai, as bait; and her own Savior Syndrome to rescue Mystic Falls and her humanity-off vampire friends from their own bad judgment. But the second time? Had she really returned to 1903 alone, risking the heretics, risking him, simply because his sister, whom Bonnie barely knew, guilt-tripped her into saving a Coven that, barely a year ago, had tried to kill her friends?

Paradoxically, irrationally, Kai felt a flash of rage. At Damon, for obvious reasons. But also, perversely, at Jo, for asking Bonnie to go, even though without Bonnie's rescue of him, he might have lost his life - he would certainly have lost his sanity.

But most of all, at Bonnie herself. For constantly throwing herself into the fire for other people. For ignoring her own hurt, her own injuries, her own healing, to save everyone.

He shook his head. He was filled with so much exasperation at the woman in front of her that it was all he could do not to walk up to her, grab her by the shoulders and shake the common sense that she sorely lacked, into her.

She watched him, with narrowed gaze, her suspicious brain immediately misreading him. "Don't you dare talk that way about my friends to me. Don't you dare come near them. Don't you-"

"I don't give a fuck about your friends, Bonnie," he snapped. "I'm calling it as I see it. Side-effects of being a reformed sociopath – I can't be bothered with the politeness of lies."

"Yeah, you got that right. Because getting empathy overnight isn't going to teach you how to think about anyone but yourself."

"Let's make a deal, shall we? I'll take a page from your besties' book - since they've been treating you _so_ well - if you'll take a page from mine and get a modicum of self-preservation?"

"And do what? Murder my friends the same way your murdered your siblings?"

Magic cackled dangerously between them, just waiting for a match to ignite it. "Touché," he said, smiling without humor.

"I learnt from the best. You're not the only one who changed, Kai."

The burst of laughter was completely involuntary. He gaped at her, laughing more as she screwed up her face, with increasing aggravation. "You've changed? Really? Barely 24 hours ago, you were going to take on half a dozen heretics for a bunch of strangers from the West Coast. The same set of strangers that would have gladly left you to rot in 1994 with a not-reformed _sociopath_ if it meant keeping me in. And you're telling me that you've _changed_? How?"

She gasped, her eyes wounded.

Too late, he stopped himself. There was a long, charged silence.

Then she nodded, as if to herself, her jaw working. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"Bonnie…" he started, stopped when she raised a hand.

"Let me guess," she said hoarsely. "Side effects of being a reformed sociopath, right? Let me put your mind at rest, Kai. That's not being a sociopath, ex or not. That's just being a jerk."

He resisted the urge to flinch, worked his mouth into a smirk. "Well, you make friends with jerks all the time. So I guess that's a good start for me."

"And as you just kindly reminded me, I need to start making better friends."

He did flinch then. How the fuck did this happen?

There were a dozen things he wanted to tell her. Yes, she infuriated him. But he didn't despise her. He despised everyone else in her life who found it so easy to take her for granted. It hurt that she had singled him out for unmitigated condemnation - but it would hurt less if she distributed that sense of self-preservation in every other aspect of her life, to the likes of Damon Salvatore, and Elena Gilbert and all the other vultures that used her. He had sat outside doors and windows, listening to her and Damon talk for months, and he knew her better than he probably liked, definitely better than she would ever like. She was stuck in a rut, in a vicious cycle, and she wasn't going to pull herself out of it.

And he obviously wasn't the one to do it. Not when they barely trusted each other. When the last few moments was a reminder of how close they always were to the kindling point. How there was a well of hurt and resentment between them. There was too much bad blood, too much bad faith, too much plain bad between them.

"When are you going back to Portland?" she asked abruptly.

His heart slammed painfully. "Why?" he asked, barely hiding the panic in his voice. "In a hurry to get rid of me?"

"You said something about having a Kingdom to rule, didn't you? Mystic Falls is small potatoes to you. What could possibly keep you here?"

"You're honestly telling me that you don't know!"

 _What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck…_

The moment he spoke, he almost slammed his fists into his mouth to push the words back. But it was too late. He felt the blood rushing out of his face, and he might even have swayed, so close he was to fainting. What the fuck had got into him?

But he knew what. Spurned on by the sight of her glaring at him like something that had died under her shoe, the words had been torn out of him.

At least, they got her to stop looking at him with such disgust. Now her narrowed eyes had widened, as she stared at him with gaping shock. She pushed away from the wall and stared harder. The blood was rushing back to his face now, over-compensating from the previous loss. He could actually feel how hot his cheeks were.

Bonnie made a sound – half exhale, half exasperated expletive, and rolled her eyes.

"Who… _what_ ever it is, you're w-waiting for…" Her voice trailed off on a disbelieving note, and she shook her head, like if she was checking her ears. "You're wasting your time."

Kai reminded himself to breathe.

Pain blossomed behind his ribs, spreading through his nerves and almost paralyzing him where he stood. For a split-second, he wondered if he was having another tremor. Then he realized that no, it wasn't physical or magical. It was just the sheer, fucking hurt of Bonnie's clear, unmitigated rejection.

What the fuck had he expected? He knew - he had always known - that he never had a chance in hell with her.

So why the fuck did it hurt?

But it did. Fucking hell, it _hurt_.

And it must have shown all over his face, because Bonnie looked away, refused to meet his gaze, as her own face reddened. "Have a nice life, Kai."

And with that, she walked out of his life, the door slamming firmly and finally behind her.

* * *

 _July 2013_

"Hello? Hello?"

"Kai. It's Joshua."

Silence.

"Kai?"

"Good for you."

"The Council has… where are you?"

Kai lifted his head to stare blearily at the disapproving-looking blond bartender and the rows of bottles behind him. "Somewhere," he said edgily.

'Somewhere' was the only semi-decent bar in this rustic Southern town which just so happened to be owned and ran by Matt Donovan, police cadet by day, bartender by night. The same Matt Donovan who was Bonnie's friend from high school, middle school, elementary school, probably even potty-training school if there was such a thing. And if the beady eye he kept throwing at Kai was any indication, he hadn't quite let go of that little incident where Kai knocked him out and did questionable magic with his memories.

Kai couldn't catch a freaking break.

"It's loud. Can you go somewhere quieter? I have something important to tell you."

Kai tried to figure what the one thing had to do with the other. His brain was a bit foggy, through god knows how many bottles of alcohol that had dulled his synapses a bit. Finally, he settled on staying put.

"Since you're making this call, I'm guessing the Council didn't decide to lock me back up in a Prison World?"

How drunk was he that what sounded like disappointment seeped into his voice?

Joshua made a sound that sounded half-angry and half-impatient. "The Council doesn't…" He sighed loudly. "I informed the Council that the heretics used the blood left behind accidentally by Sheila Bennett's grand-daughter to escape; and you were unable to destroy the Ascendant in time to stop them. There will be a _clusus_ inquiry into the initial release of Lily Salvatore, of course, but nothing beyond that."

Kai was silent, staring in front of him and seeing absolutely nothing.

"Kai?"

"Why?" he asked at last.

He didn't need to elaborate the question.

"Because it was unnecessary. Because it would bring more instability to the coven at a time that we are recovering and rebuilding. Because I vouched for you and I won't be made out as a fool."

"Or because you want to hold it over my head? Do I divine some blackmail in my future, Dad?"

"Think as you wish, _Malachai_ ," Joshua said, sounding absolutely disgusted. "But while you're pondering over my motives, make sure you return to Portland immediately. No Praetor has taken this long to complete his _Redimio_ –"

"Whose fault is that?"

"–There are rites and _teletourgias_ that only the Praetor can perform that will soon be long past _arga_. And unfortunately for us all, you _are_ the Praetor."

Kai's hackles rose. "Yes, I am and I will return whenever I damn well feel…"

"Did you think that the position comes without obligations? That you'd get all that power and not have to actually do anything with it except indulge your whims?"

"How would I know since you didn't bother to fucking train me for the fucking job?"

"Then return to Portland and we will begin your _Disciplina_."

The phone went dead. The bastard had hung up on him. The old man wanted to die, Kai concluded with perfect clarity. Eighteen years in a prison world and all the abuse he had suffered before that wasn't enough. His big mouth and bad timing that fateful day had cost Kai… had cost Kai a lot and now he was arm-twisting him back to Portland.

He could go to Portland, Kai thought darkly. He could go there and murder his father. Why, if he wanted, he was powerful enough to port over to the family mansion right now, and rip Joshua's spine out from his throat. Would be fucking hard to convince the Council not to lock him up for _that_.

Instead, Kai dropped his phone into his glass and listened to it sizzling with satisfaction.

He shoved the glass aside and slammed his hand on the table. "Another, please. Bottle. Er… and a glass, too. But that's not really necessary."

Matt Donovan re-appeared with a glare. "I'm cutting you off."

Kai blinked. "Excuse you?"

"You're done here, pal. I'm calling a cab. It was a mistake even letting you in my bar in the first place."

"The aspirin worked, didn't it?" Kai asked with concern.

Matt's face turned thunderous. "I didn't take it."

Huh. That was unnecessarily paranoid. There were far less clumsy ways of poisoning someone than expecting them to administer the toxin themselves.

Anyway, the mundane's headache from the _Memoria_ spell should have long gone. No way he'd be working the bar with a head-splitter.

So this was just his attitude.

Kai offered some free advice. "You need to loosen up, man. I can score you some weed if you like."

"And you need to get the hell out of my bar."

The attitude was beginning to grate. "You do not want to piss me off right now," Kai said, speaking as slowly as possible so that the meaning of his words were absolutely clear – and also to reduce the slurring.

The bartender slash police cadet slash Bonnie's pet mundane puffed defiantly. Literally puffed. "I'm not afraid of you."

Kai started laughing. What the hell. The guy was practically begging for a beat down. Kai would try not to break him… much. "Oh, this is going to be so good." He raised his hand.

And someone slammed it into the counter abruptly. Someone cold and alien and what the fuck was wrong with him that he let his guard so completely down that a _vampire_ sneaked up on him?

Kai looked up with alarm at the dark-haired blood sucker that was staring – not at him, Kai – but at the bartender. "Be a good bloke, Matt and get my mate a pint."

Kai grabbed his hand back quickly as Matt glared at the Annoying Accent Vamp. "I'm on vervain, Enzo."

Enzo… Enzo… The name was familiar. But in his alcohol-laden state, Kai couldn't connect it with any knowledge he had of Mystic Falls' residents.

"Sod it," Enzo was saying and hell, his voice was so annoying. "Now I'm going to have to pound it out of you."

Wow, Kai thought, blinking, as Enzo's fangs descended and Matt's fists went up. All this to get him a drink?

Was the vampire trying to impress him?

Was Kai giving out any Luke-gay vibes?

"Guys, guys, guys! What's going on? We're all buddies here."

Kai's self-amusing and wandering train of thought ended abruptly as a red haze clouded his vision. He was half-way out his chair, his hand raised when Damon Salvatore's fist closed over it, breaking it.

Kai barely even registered the pain, barely registered the sound of shouts near him, before his other hand – palm open, fingers worked with magic to each tip – slammed onto Damon's skull, and the vampire fell to his knees.

"Hey, not here!" Matt was shouting but Kai barely heard him. His fingers were sinking into flesh , through bone, and the slimy underneath. He couldn't see past the red, past the hate, and the rage and the freedom to fucking hurt someone because violence was always such a dependable antidote to pain.

Then something grabbed him, slamming his arms to his sides and he was lifted off his feet.

"Hey," Accent – Enzo said. "Let's all calm down here."

Kai jerked back his head and butted the vampire's stupid face, loosening the grip on his arms. His arms now free, he reached over his back with his good hand, bent over his knee and flipped the vampire over his shoulder and onto the counter with a slam.

Damon was rushing at him, and Kai's hand came up, magic hurling both vampires away from him.

Patrons were screaming and rushing out of the bar, knocking over bottles and furniture in their haste to get away from the ugly fight, and wrecking the place even more. Matt Donovan was yelling.

For the first time in days, Kai felt almost happy.

The two vampires were struggling to their feet.

"Please come at me," he muttered, and the fact that he was swaying on his feet and had a broken wrist did not even faze him because between the alcohol and the magic trip and the adrenaline rush of kicking someone's ass, this was so awesome…

Then he felt cold metal on his temple.

He turned to stare down the small revolver, up Matt's arm to his steely gaze. Then he followed the bartender's other arm to where his other hand was holding up what looked like a small bomb.

"Vervain," Matt said furiously. "I drop this or it gets yanked out of my hand, and you guys turn into vampire shrapnel." He cocked his head at Kai, and shifting the gun an inch. "I don't need to explain how this baby works, do I?"

"Uh no," Kai said at once.

"I don't give a damn about your quarrel. Just don't do it in my fucking bar."

"I didn't come here to quarrel," Enzo gritted out. "I just came here to talk to the warlock bloke and he's the one that got all physical with me."

"Are you coming on to me?" Kai asked, seriously.

Damon guffawed. Enzo glared.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" Matt snapped.

"Because I might be giving out certain vibes unintentionally," Kai said, earnestly to Enzo.

Damon grinned, all fangs. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to keep the peace."

"I don't want any of you in my bar," Matt growled.

"And in that case," Kai concluded, "I apologize for that."

"Will you shut your mug?" Enzo yelled. He turned to Damon. "Does he ever stop talking?"

"Nope."

"Cripes! We'll be real hush-hush, Matt," Enzo muttered, taking a seat. "Damon and I'll even help clean up."

"We will?" Damon mused, sitting down.

Kai eyed the two of them, then he gently sidled past Matt's gun and took his old seat. If things became more violent, all the better.

Matt looked distinctly unhappy with their continued presence in his bar. But he put away his weapons – not a smart move, Kai thought – and went to get a broom.

Wooden broom, Kai noted. OK, maybe not as dumb as his hair would make people think.

Whistling a little, Kai mended his wrist with a silent spell. It would still need proper patching up later, but now, it was good for the next hour or so. He conjured a handkerchief to wipe his hands clean off bourbon-soaked Salvatore brain.

The two vampires had been whispering something urgently between themselves and Kai only paid attention in time to catch the trail end of it.

"How's babysitting Miss Mystic Falls going along?" Damon was asking. He had reached over the counter for one of the few unbroken bottles and was drinking straight from the mouth like the barbarian that he was.

"Someone needed to be there for her," Enzo replied, sounding somewhat defensive. "Everyone else seemed to have left her to fend for herself. Just because she came through for the wedding doesn't mean she isn't still hurting."

"Yeah yeah yeah. Cry me a river of vampire Barbie tears. But between you and me? Better you than my brother."

"Right. Talking about your family…" Enzo looked over at Kai. "I'm looking for Lily Salvatore. Word on the street is that you're the guy to ask."

Kai, who had been struggling to call a bottle into his hand – strange how his magic was just fine when he was violent and fighting but something as simple as this was proving impossible – turned to stare at the guy. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Enzo scowled. "Now, look here, mate-"

"No, you look here, _mate_. Lily Salvatore is-"

"Gone for the moment," Damon said hastily. "Enzo, we talked about this. Prison world timeout. A century, maybe two? It's for her own good. They don't build ripper asylums on this side of the veil. At least, not yet."

"Funny how Stefan seemed to do just fine without ever getting locked up in some alternate dimension," Enzo said, turning furiously to Damon. "She was distraught. And her bloody sons couldn't even-"

"Couldn't what? Reunite her with her family of monsters who nearly gave us a real life Red Wedding? Leave her to desiccate in the dungeon? Where any oedipal maniac could break her out and let her roam ripper-free across the great state of Virginia until some witch or vampire hunter kills her? She's _safe_ in 1903. We'll figure out a way to re-integrate her into society. She's a vampire. Time is on our side." Damon was talking to Enzo, but his eyes were boring into Kai's face.

What the fuck was going on?

"What the fuck is going on?" Kai asked.

Enzo whirled back at him. "Just so you know, the only reason why I haven't ripped your head off is because I hear that if anything happens to you, the prison worlds self-destruct."

"I can't even force myself to take you seriously," Kai said. "Who are you again?"

Enzo gritted his teeth. "Enzo."

"Enzo… who?"

Enzo got to his feet. Damon was between the vampire and the warlock before Matt Donovan could groan. "OK, buddy. Deep breaths. Calm down. I'll talk to him."

Enzo's glare shifted from Kai to Damon and back to Kai. "You'd better."

"Promise. Now, go and comb Caroline's hair or something, OK?"

The vampire shuffled out.

Kai shook his head, staring after him. "Enzo. Like Madonna or something? I guess Kai doesn't have the one-name ring to it? Not enough syllables? Maybe I could go with Malachai? People already think I'm some kind of demon."

Damon eyed him warily. "What is wrong with you? You seem even loonier than usual, and that's saying something."

Kai turned back to the bottle he was trying – and failing – to get. "Damon, I don't like you on a good day. Now I'm seeing like four of you. Get lost. Follow the continental reject and drown in the Atlantic or something."

Damon reached for the bottle and slammed it down in front of him.

Kai glared at it, then shrugged and poured himself a glass. If Damon was expecting thanks, he would wait his eternal lifetime for it. Apparently the alcohol was working because Kai's earlier rage at the vampire had dimmed from red fury to a sort of pink distaste. The feelings from before were still there – but they were numb under an insulation of booze.

Now all Kai had to do was keep drinking until he was just a glass from passing out, port to his apartment, wreck it until the columns barely held up, and promptly sleep out the rest of his life.

That was far better than a Prison World, he decided. At least a life of misery would have an endpoint.

"Hey, can you do that thing where no one around us can hear a word of what we're saying?" Damon muttered.

Kai looked at him. "Oh, great. You're still here."

"Kai," Damon snapped.

Kai shrugged. "If you've got something to tell me that you don't want Matty to know, then say it quietly," he whispered the last, then he sighed. "Gosh, I'm hungry," he realized sadly.

"Just how drunk are you?" Damon exclaimed.

"Talk fast, Damon or I might just eat _you_."

The vampire growled and Kai wondered if he would really have to make good on his threat. Thankfully, Damon seemed to come to a decision.

"That guy? Enzo? He's a friend of mine. And my mother's." He made a face. "Ugh. Whatever. Look, he doesn't need to know that Lily is dead. Point of fact? It would be a really good thing for all of us if _no one_ else but you and me and Stefan knows that she's dead."

Kai drank from his glass, then filled it back up.

Damon fidgeted. "If word got round, you'd make lots of enemies. Enzo'll just be the first. I convinced Stefan to let it go and that was no mean feat. So you owe me a favor."

"Damon, I'm drunk but I'm not that drunk. How exactly do _I_ owe _you_ for your brother not being mad at _you_ for killing _your mother_?"

" _Because you made me do it_ ," Damon growled.

"Yeah, because when I came looking for Lily to kill her myself… I somehow… made… you… do it… by… the sheer force… of…" He pondered for a bit. "My personality?"

"Kai," Damon warned.

"Why don't you just admit that you don't want Elena Gilbert-shaped ears to hear that the love of her life is a mother-killer?" Kai cringed. "That sounded obscene."

"Think what you like. Just keep your trap shut."

"Or what?" Kai sing-sang, and poured himself another drink.

"Or Bonnie will have one more reason to hate you."

All the bottles in the rack exploded.

Damon skidded back at super-speed, missing the shards. A purely reflexive shield had risen up around Kai and that was the only reason why he wasn't torn into ribbons. Instead the glass bounced off him, and all around him, on the bar, on the stools, on the floor around his feet. He hadn't even realized when he had got to his feet. But now he stood facing Damon, his fists clenched against his side, the muscles in his neck so tight that they hurt, and he felt that one wrong move and his veins would pop.

Matt Donovan, sweeping in the far corner, merely looked up, stared blankly at his demolished bar, then went back to work.

Damon started laughing.

"Oh my god, that's the reason for the drinking. You being so off your game. What did you do to her?"

"Shut up, Damon."

"How did you manage to mess up so badly with her? She was all ' _he saved my life!_ ' a month ago. You've wanted a chance with her for as long as I've known you. You finally got one and you blew it?" He was bent almost double with laughter.

Kai sent a spray of shards in his direction. Damon skipped away, still laughing.

"How long did it last? Two days? A day? Don't tell me the Homecoming Queen pulled a ' _wham, bam, thank you Kai_ '?"

"Keep talking, Damon," Kai muttered, and he turned back to the bar. There were shards in his drink and he pulled them out with shaky magic. "Hope you'll also be laughing when Elena finds out the truth about you."

"Going for the low hanging fruit, are we? Be my guest, Kai. But I'm betting that Elena will see it as me saving Stefan's life, and let it go. You'd be amazed at the things I can get away with her when I say it's for Stefan's sake."

"Wow, you guys don't sound dysfunctional at all."

"But _Bonnie_ will see it as _you_ reverting to type and add that to her growing list of Reasons Why I Won't Do Kai Parker."

This time when he sent the glass flying at Damon, he had better aim. The shards went straight into the vampire's eyes.

Damon screamed, blood pouring down his cheeks. Then he smashed into Kai, hurling him to the table, his hands clamped around Kai's throat.

"That's enough!" Matt shouted. "Both of you, get out!"

Kai's fingers grabbed at the air and Damon started choking, blue veins popping out of his face as a magical grip closed over his heart. He let go of Kai to clutch at his chest desperately.

"Go ahead," he croaked. "Kill me. Give Bonnie one more reason to hate you."

"Like she can stand you now," Kai growled. "You're the one that lied to her. That used her to free a ripper. That almost turned her into a murderer."

"We're on the outs now," Damon gasped. "But you said it yourself – she always comes back. Like it or not, I'm up there with the people she'd go to bat for – and you are not. You're just a booty call that she already regrets."

Kai flung him across the room, and Damon smashed into the wall, cracking it as he slid down.

"Get out before I kill you," Kai hissed.

Of course, the vampire didn't. "Yes, I killed You Know Who because I wanted to. She was a letdown, a waste of space and an all-around nuisance who attacked my girlfriend and our best friend. You just made me seem less of a jerk at the time," he crowed. "So you could say you did me a favor. Now do yourself a favor and get the hell out of this town."

"The hell I will," Kai growled.

"Why not?" Damon asked, and he sounded genuinely confused. "Your shiny new coven is in Portland. Go be King there. Word is that Alaric and Jo might even go live there. So what are you sticking around Mystic Falls for?" He snorted. "Bonnie? She doesn't want you. No one wants you, Kai." His mouth twisted poisonously. "So why don't you leave before you screw up even more and give Bonnie more reasons to _never want to be with you_?"

"You mention her name again," Kai whispered, "and I will kill you."

Damon smirked. Then he raised his hand in a mock salute at Kai, then at the bartender. "Sorry about the mess, Donovan," he said before he walked out.

So much for the offer to clean up, Kai couldn't help remembering.

He turned back to the bar. He picked up his glass, staring into the bottom, then hurled it against the far wall.

"Get. the. hell. out. of. my. bar!" Matt Donovan roared. He had appeared right next to Kai – once again showing how shot Kai's reflexes were – and his voice almost sent Kai through the roof.

Kai stared blearily up at him. The cadet's face was almost twisted with malevolence. "Sorry about the mess. I can clean this up." He sent his magic at the shards, and they hopped a little, then fell back to the ground. "Just give me a moment to get my mojo back," he muttered.

"And do what? Get my patrons back? Help me find another insurance company to cover this place?"

"Hey! There were three people in that fight, you know."

"Forgive me if I don't really care which of you is supposed to be the good guy today. Just get out."

And go to where? His lonely apartment? It wasn't so long ago that Bonnie had been there. Now she wasn't. Her presence lingered, poisoning it with memories that Kai feared were only beginning to haunt him.

Kai was halfway through the door when Matt yelled. "Hey, Parker. Catch." He looked up and saw his phone flying at him like a missile. He plucked it out of the air seconds before it hit his face.

* * *

Beep.

Long pause. "I know you said not to call and this is the last one, OK? I don't wanna freak you out…" Slurred laugh. "That's a good one, eh Bon?" Another laugh. "You get one chance with Bonnie Bennett and I screwed mine up." Sniffs. "Do you even listen to my messages or do you just delete them? I guess there's an app for that… there's an app for everything…" Choking laugh. Heavy sigh. "I think about it all the time, you know. The hotel… You…"

" _Message skipped."_

"Hey, Bon." Sigh.

Beep.

" _Message deleted."_

"Bon. Hi. So I was thinking…" Beat. "You heard my Dad, didn't you?" Sigh. "Please, you can't just…" Long pause.

Beep.

" _Message deleted."_

"Hi, Bon. You haven't returned my calls. Of course, you won't have to if you just answered them…" Beat. "So I went to your dorm. It's kinda amazing. I didn't know college dorms had rooms that big. Your RA said no one's seen you or your roommates for days. Broke down and asked your friends. Said you were fine." Beat. "So I guess you're just avoiding me then. Which is cool. I guess I came on too strong. Er… I think. I'm still learning this stuff. So you can call me and let me know. That. That I came on too strong." Beat. "Please."

Beep.

" _Message deleted."_

"Hey, Bon. So I was thinking… Did you hear anything of what my dad and I were saying? Because, you know, context is key and everything, and you've got a track record of not getting all your facts before you make life-altering decisions. For me." Nervous laughter. "So… call me about that drink, OK?"

Beep.

" _Message deleted."_

"Hi. Bon. You left… I mean, I… I'm sorry that I took off with my Dad. Coven business. The old man has the worst timing…" Nervous laughter. "I don't know what you heard, but… Maybe dinner was too much pressure. We… we can try drinks at the Grill? It's totally sleazy, and practically a dump but… but it has its charm and I'm sure it's lovely if… if you get used to it. So… call me." Beat. "Bye."

Beep.

" _Message deleted. You have no more new messages. To listen to skipped messages, press 9."_

Beep.

Long pause. "I know you said not to call and this is the last one, OK? I don't wanna freak you out…" Slurred laugh. "Probably too late for that, right, Bon?" Another laugh. "You get one chance with Bonnie Bennett and I screwed mine up." Sniffs. "So… this is it. Do you even listen to my messages or do you just delete them? I guess there's an app for that… there's an app for everything…" Choking laugh. Heavy sigh."I think about it all the time, you know. The hotel… You… I don't know what's worse. If it never happened or that it happened, and I'll never get it back… Get you back… Oh god, Bonnie…" Long, shuddering sigh. "I need you… to have a great life. Get good grades, and all that shit… And get the fuck out of Mystic Falls… Virginia… The whole East Coast if you can… You're a good person… You deserve the fucking world... " Long pause. "Bon? You know that I… I… lo…" Long silence.

Beep.

She played it again. Twice more.

After the fourth repeat, her finger hovered over the touch-keypad for a long time. Then she tapped 7.

" _Message deleted."_

Bonnie took fifteen minutes to crush the phone into pieces of silicon powder. No magic. Just the sheer physical satisfaction of smashing something into smithereens with a bat, and the heel of her boot. Then she swept up the remains, threw them into the trash can and - still without magic - set it ablaze.

She threw herself on the bed, lay on her back, and gazed at the ceiling. Memories played over in her head, each one more heart-wrenching than the other. She forced herself to relive them. One last time and that was it. Afterwards, a fresh start. In every aspect of her life.

But she won't cry. She wasn't going to fricking cry over him.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, she fell asleep.

When she woke up, the dorm room was dark, and someone had put a blanket over her, and a bowl of soup at her bedside table. At first, she assumed it was Caroline. She had turned up a few days ago. Bonnie hadn't seen Elena since right after the wedding.

But when Bonnie sat up on her bed, she looked across the room to see Elena, sitting on her own bed, watching Bonnie.

"Hey," Elena said quietly.

"Hey," Bonnie said back.

For a long moment, the two girls just looked each other.

"Thanks for the soup," Bonnie said.

Elena smiled. "It's your favorite."

It was Bonnie's favorite. She could tell by the smell. Still, she couldn't touch it. Instead, she curled her body back into the bed, and pulled the covers over her head.

A few moments later, she heard Elena take the soup away. Then she was sliding in behind Bonnie and wrapped her arms around her over the blanket.

If Elena noticed the way Bonnie's shoulders kept shaking or the way her breath kept hitching, she didn't mention it. What she did do was leave the bed to get a box of tissues and place it on Bonnie's side of the bed, within easy reach.

She never said a single word. For the first time in a long time, Bonnie was grateful to her oldest friend.

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _"You have one unheard message."_

"Lang. You heard, right? Fuck knows I won't be leaving this if things weren't all gone to shit. For all I know you might even be…" Heavy, shuddering breath. "We got played. We got played good f and… I' m done. No _venia_ can save me. It's between the devil and the deep blue sea now." Cold laughter. "I go out on my terms. Goodbye, friend."

* * *

The call connected on the second ring.

"Joshua."

"Who is this?"

"Patrice Lang."

"Where are you?"

"Where do you think? On the run from your lunatic son and the heretic that tried to kill me yesterday."

"Kai? You met with my son? Where-"

"I met with the wolves he sent to hunt me down. Then I was kidnapped and nearly killed by a heretic."

Pause.

"What? Did you hear what I just said? A heretic almost killed me."

"Yes, I heard you, Patrice."

"That's it? Joshua, I need… protection."

"Did you accept the _venia_?"

"Of course not!"

"That was… unwise."

"I'm not going to throw myself at Malachai's mercy. He's as likely to kill me as the heretics."

Pause.

"Isn't he?"

"You and I haven't spoken in a very long time, Patrice. Things have changed."

"What does that mean?"

"You should have accepted the _venia_ when you had the chance."

"Accepted mercy from a man who's probably dreamed of killing me since he was ten? I thought we were friends, Joshua."

"Then my advice to you is to… follow your judgment. If you don't think you can be safe in Portland, then make yourself safe elsewhere."

"I need help: funds, contacts… If he really is going to go through with a Revocation on any exile left, then I might even be without magic soon."

"No Praetor has performed a Revocation in three centuries, Patrice."

"It's not you that's at risk, is it?"

Pause. "I will see what I can do."

The call ended abruptly.

* * *

 _Portland, Oregon_

Later, Alaric Saltzman would think back on that fateful Sunday when his life was turned upside down – yet again – and wonder how he hadn't seen it coming. In retrospect, the signs had been so glaring. The most obvious, of course, being just how good his life had got that past year. Too good.

He really should have known – every moment of happiness he ever had, had always been paid for with interest.

The day had started so innocuously – a warm and lazy morning at home. The big game on Friday was behind him, and he only had a handful of remedial papers on his desk for grading. School was out the next week. The twins were fast asleep, and the grown-ups – Alaric, Jo, and Gab – were all lounging around the kitchen table after the big breakfast that Gab had cooked.

The old lady went to the stove with her bowl. "Seconds?" She asked, raising the pot of oatmeal.

Everyone groaned.

"I'm stuffed!" Jo exclaimed. "I feel like if the twins are back inside me."

Alaric laughed into his coffee mug. He glanced over at the empty seat beside his wife. "Heard from Liv since she left?"

"She's fine. More than fine." Jo snickered.

Alaric peered at his wife. "What am I missing?"

Jo's voice turned conspiratorial. "So, Liv is supposed to be going to Orlando for this business trip, right?"

Alaric nodded. Apparently, someone at the office where Liv did freelance work had called in sick at the last minute and his sister-in-law had been volunteered to step in. She had vacillated over going, worried about leaving Jo and Alaric alone but they had all but pushed her to go. As a matter of fact, they'd already been thinking up ways of pushing Liv out of the nest without her getting the wrong idea. She had been – still was – invaluable to them. But as the twins got older, the Saltzmans grew more settled with Gab, and talks of the Gemini coven taking the children became more and more of a distant memory; Jo's and Alaric's guilt about more or less cutting Liv from her social life was outweighing the necessity of her presence with them.

"Remember how reluctant she was to leave? And what we felt was the real reason behind that? The 'unfinished business' I told you about?"

The Saltzmans had concluded that – aside from her very good intentions to help them out – Liv was also using living with her sister as something of a crutch. On one of the rare times, she had confided in Alaric personally, she had mentioned that helping out with the twins gave her a good reason to end a bad relationship with a colleague at work. Jo's theory was that Liv had unfinished business in Mystic Falls, unfinished business called Tyler Lockwood, and until that was settled, one way or the other, Liv would remain in stasis. Whatever the reason, Liv's personal life wasn't going to get any forward motion if she kept hiding out here.

Alaric nodded now, then he paused at the twinkle in Jo's eyes. "Wait a minute..."

Jo burst out laughing. "Turns out Liv needed to make a pit stop at Mystic Falls for some reason or the other. She claims it was to see Bonnie about some Gemini thing or the other… OK, well, she really needed to see Bonnie about something to do with the coven. But when I called Liv at midnight Eastern Time yesterday, guess who picked up the phone?"

Alaric snorted. "I will take a wild guess and say it was one of my star players on the Timberwolves football team?"

Jo clinked her mug against his own. "You, my husband, are a genius."

They beamed at each other over their mugs. Alaric wondered if this was what it felt to be 'settled'. Lolling around early in the morning, making the most of the babies being asleep, while conspiring with his wife to match-make the younger generation.

Whatever Damon said about him being boring and domesticated, Alaric won't trade any of this to return to a life of supernatural crime-fighting.

Which reminded him…

He bit back a groan.

Jo raised an inquiring eyebrow at his direction.

"Oh, it's nothing… serious," he hedged. He couldn't believe he had let it slip his mind all week. "Just something I was supposed to follow up on and only just remembered. Did you ever get a chance to look into that name I mentioned… Judith Stewart?"

Jo was turning to him, a frown between her eyes, when the sound of metal falling made them both jump, their gazes flying to the stove area.

"Sorry," Gab muttered. She was settling the pan of oatmeal back on the stand. "Pan slipped." She shuffled back to the table.

"Easy," Alaric murmured. He turned back to his wife, with a rueful smile. "Sorry to ask. I know you've been busy…"

"Actually, I figured it out," Jo said, surprising him. "There was a Judy Stuart – – on-call nurse at the hospital the night we had the false alarm last year. Remember her? Mid-twenties? Looked East Asian?"

Alaric didn't. But then he had probably blacked out most of the events of that night. Being ignominiously thrown out of his wife's hospital room because he was throwing a tantrum had not been one of Alaric's finest moments.

This person didn't sound at all like the sixty-odd year old white woman that Bonnie had described. "Thanks for looking into it," he said, all the same to his wife.

"You're welcome. What is this about anyway?"

He hesitated. He studied his wife with her quizzical but relaxed smile, and Gab who was staring at him with stern, bright blue eyes. As if on cue, the sound of one of the twins turning in her sleep filtered through the baby monitor. If Liv was here, she'd probably be fiddling with her phone and coffee.

The topic of murdered witches, and magic wielding vampires in Virginia didn't seem like it belonged in this picturesque setting that was his home. Even though or rather _especially because_ , every single person in this house except him was – or had been – a witch.

"Just information for a friend that I offered to help. I'll pass on what you found."

Maybe Bonnie was right, he thought, as Jo turned towards Liv to ask her something. Perhaps a little bit of him missed the excitement of his life a few years back. But that was irresponsible _and_ tempting fate. He had far too much to lose.

Gab got up abruptly. "Thought I heard one of the girls."

Alaric was already halfway standing when he did a double-take. "There's nothing from the monitor…"

"Better check," she said curtly. Her face was grim as she hobbled out of the room.

The Saltzmans turned as one to the monitor to listen, but they didn't hear any sounds of a baby, or even Gab herself. They looked at each other.

"What was that about?" Alaric wondered.

"I have no idea-" Jo started saying, when she jumped a little as a loud buzzer filled the room. "That's mine," she said, reaching for her pocket when Alaric instinctively grabbed his own phone. She pulled out her phone and stared at the screen. "Oh my goodness."

"What?" he asked at once.

Jo put the phone to her face. "Kai Parker! Where the hell have you been?"

* * *

 _New Orleans, Louisiana_

Jo was insistent: Kai had to call Dad and get him off her back before she would even hear Kai out.

So he called his father, then held the phone six inches away from his ear while Joshua shouted through the line for the first five minutes. When the old man's voice had lowered to a croak, Kai pulled the phone back to his face.

"You done, Dad? Have you let off enough steam for us to end this conversation?"

"No, I have not! You need to get back to Portland immediately."

Kai looked at the busy street in front of him. He was sitting at the sidewalk of a lovely little place downtown that served the most amazing meals. He had discovered it last year when he came down to negotiate pax with the magical powerhouses of the South – the Faerie Court, the Nine Covens, the Werewolves and the Mikaelson clan. Being able to find good food here had been the only good thing about those weeks of nightmarish mediations. So of course, he made a beeline for here the moment he got off his plane.

Now yummy smells filled the air and a warm plate would soon be laid out in front of him. It was the least he deserved considering the crappy couple of days he had been having.

"No can do, Dad. I'm kind of busy at the moment."

"Doing what?" Before Kai could even evade the question, Joshua went on. "What could be more important than the mass influx of exiles that you sent back to the coven with _absolutus_ _venia_? _Absolutus_ _venia_ , Malachi!"

"You mean the exiles that _you_ led away from the coven in the first place?" _That you kept away from the coven all this while?_ But Kai had no proof of that, wasn't even completely convinced of it himself. He had to tread carefully, not show his hand. "Anyway, they weren't all _absolutus_ _venia_. You are exaggerating, as always. I reserved a whole batch of _particularis venia_ for any old crone in exile that I remembered you watching Monday night football with. Talking about crones, has crusty old Lang turned up?"

"He… I… Well, how am I supposed to know that? You can't expect me to know off-head the status of one witch out of the horde that've been flooding the Council everyday? That's _your_ job. You need to come back to Portland and sort this out. There are ceremonies, oaths of fealty, tributes to be paid…"

"The Council should sort it out. Move your asses a bit. You can't expect me to do everything, you know."

"Watch your language. _You_ are the one who sent werewolves and faeries as emissaries instead of Envoys. You broke protocol…"

"If you're going to berate me about protocol, Dad then I will hang up on you right now," Kai said coldly.

That shut the old man up. Kai could practically see the constipated look on his father's face.

As if by magic, the waiter appeared then and placed his meal in front of him with a flourish. The smell of it went straight into his head, calming him.

"Is there anything else? Anything else _important_?"

"There's still an empty seat on the Council."

"Oh not this again," Kai said with a groan. The Councilors had been haggling, positively haggling like road-side traders over whose BFF, toady or ally got the coveted last seat. If Kai hadn't more or less pushed Parkinson down their throats, there'd be _two_ empty seats leftover since Lovegood and Ghiacci 'vacated' last year. His father wanted him to do that again – push a candidate of his own – but Kai wasn't going to. It defeated the whole purpose of the separation of powers between the Council and the Praetor – and exposed him to double the blame if things got screwed up. He had made an exception for Douglas because of his personal regard for the man, but he wasn't going to do a repeat.

"I haven't changed my position on this," he said.

"Good because at the moment, five of us are in agreement that Olivia should take that seat."

Kai tensed. "Olivia who?"

Joshua heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Your sister, Kai."

"Yeah, I thought so. Is this some sort of joke?"

"She was an exceptional Special Envoy during hers and Luke's mission to vanquish the Travelers. She's trained all her life to lead the coven. It would be a shame to let all that investment go to waste."

"Yeah, a real loss," Kai said, bitterly, remembering the distinct lack of investment that had been put into him as a youth. Ceremonies that he had been barred from attending. Responsibilities he had never been trusted with. Lessons he had been plain denied because there was no point wasting knowledge on the siphon without magic.

At least that was the reason he had been given. His parents and the Elders hadn't quite come out to tell him they never intended to give him a shot at being Praetor. They had just played the siphon card: why invest in him when their money was on Jo? In retrospect, it had been so obvious that they were never going to give him a chance. It was why the likes of Patrice Lang – an Envoy that should have been lobbying to take the potential heir under his wing – could treat him like dirt instead.

Envoys…

 _Envoys…_

"Kai, are you still there?"

"I am," he said slowly. His mind had gone off a tangent, and now he pulled it back.

"It's a nice suggestion – ignoring the obvious nepotism – but there's a small problem you haven't thought of."

"What's that?"

"Liv's not interested in sitting on the Council. She will laugh in your face when you ask her."

"My daughter will do her duty."

"Ha!" Kai barked. "OK, you know what? Get Liv to _ask_ me for the job and I will consider her nomination."

Joshua sniffed. "She will," he declared in a tone that brooked no doubt. "Now where are you and when will you be back?"

"Won't you like to know?" Kai drawled and hung up.

Finally, he tucked into the meal, now slightly cold but still as amazing as he expected. He chuckled softly to himself as he imagined how the conversation between Joshua and Liv would go down. Liv and Luke, the golden twins in more ways than one, had been brought up with their every whim indulged. His sister was a spoiled brat that was used to getting absolutely everything she wanted. When Kai had returned from the prison world, he had quickly realized that there were two things that Liv loved the most – her twin, and her freedom from the coven – and, well, Luke was gone now.

The waiter took away the plate, and left a slice of red velvet cake that he consumed with gusto, his mind moving fast. The conversation with Joshua hadn't been pleasant but they rarely were. Kai had detected no unusual strain on his father's part. If Joshua was aware that Kai had been with Patrice Lang, he gave no indication.

Which meant absolutely nothing because Joshua had also given no indication that he had just spoken to 'Patrice Lang' that morning and he had lied through his teeth when he said he didn't know if Patrice had returned to Portland.

For the millionth time, Kai replayed Patrice's dying words:

" _Tell her… live… We were wrong…"_

" _Don't trust who?"_

" _You must live…"_

" _I will. I will live. Tell me. Don't trust who?"_

" _Par…"_

Par. Parker? Joshua Parker?

Or had Par… been part of a first name? Or maybe it wasn't even Par maybe the 'r' had been a slur and it was just Pa. Patrice himself? Kai snorted. Now he was reaching.

He had returned to the man's house after his death, and this time he found it magically scoured. The scant clues Kai had obtained the first time he went through Patrice's house was all he would ever get from Patrice Lang, to piece together the mystery he had taken with him to his death.

Now Kai looked at the phone that he had placed beside his own on the table. Patrice's phone and wallet had been on him when he died – sheer luck on Kai's part. As Kai had already discovered in Ranger, Montana Patrice had been a good little undercover Envoy until the end – the phone was scrubbed clean. No contacts, no call logs, no messages, no personal data. But just before Kai had surprised him, the old man had been about to call a number and the record of that was still on his phone.

The number was unlisted so Kai finished the call that Patrice had never started. It went straight to voice mail, not ringing once. There was no name on the mailbox, just the number itself and Kai's first instinct was to hang up when the idea occurred to him.

 _No one knew that Patrice Lang was dead_. Not even the heretic Frederick could confirm it since the old man was still alive when Kai rescued him. For all Frederik knew, Lang survived the attack. So why not keep up the pretense that Patrice Lang was alive and wait and see who would contact him, and what that could reveal?

So Kai had left a message, a simple spell turning his Portland lilt to a drawl as crusted and gray as the late Patrice Lang himself:

' _Close call with Malachai and the heretic. Call back.'_

When in doubt, stay close to the truth – that was his plan. After that, he boarded up the house, did some spell-work to make it look like the man had flown the coop, booked and boarded a new flight to Mexico City as Patrice with the help of an illusion spell, and traipsed about the city for a while, dropping clues along the way, before doubling back to New Orleans. If anyone was on Patrice Lang's trail, they'd believe him to be somewhere in the middle of Mexico by now, on the run from both the Gemini and the heretics.

It was only a matter of time before someone tried to reach out to him. Several some-ones.

Interesting conversations ensued.

Joshua Parker was one of only two people that Kai had called masquerading as Patrice. He wanted to concretize his suspicions. But the conversation itself had revealed nothing. Joshua had told 'Patrice' that rejecting the pardon was unwise – perfectly innocuous advice. Of course, it could be that his father was too smart to implicate himself in a phone call. Because hadn't he eventually advised Patrice Lang to reject the _venia_ and stay away from Portland?

More importantly, if Joshua Parker's hands were clean, if he had nothing to hide, why had he then lied to Kai about not knowing Patrice's decision?

The bottom line was Kai wasn't any surer about his father's role in all this now than he had been a few days ago. He needed more. Joshua had told 'Patrice', he would be in touch again. Before he did, Kai needed to be ready. He needed answers to questions that had only just occurred to him.

Kai thought of the second person he had attempted calling with Patrice Lang's phone and by association, his mind shifted again to the tangent that had hooked it earlier.

 _Envoys_.

Before he died, Patrice Lang's last coherent instructions to Kai were that he should live and that he should…

' _Betty. Find… Betty. Tell… her… live… We… were… wrong. Don't trust… Pa.'_

Apparently, while in exile Patrice Lang had stayed in touch with Bethany Stewart, retired Western Chief _Envoy_.

She had been the second person Kai had called in guise as Patrice Lang. She hadn't picked the call either and he had left the same message he had left to unlisted number. If he were honest with himself, Kai was relieved that he didn't have to speak to the woman – in any guise. There were few people in the world who could intimidate him and Bethany Stewart was one of them. A flash of memory hit him – a conversation he had had with her last year – and he flinched.

No, he was not looking forward to confronting Bethany Stewart, the former Chief Envoy who had been the Chief Matron at his sister's wedding and suffered the loss of her son and daughter-in-law in the same night. Nor was he eager to confront Bethany Stewart, another familiar face from his childhood – one of Micah Parker's oldest friends, and sister-in-law of the late Judith Stewart, also an ex-Envoy of the same guard.

 _Envoys._

Patrice Lang. Judith Stewart. Now Bethany.

The Briggs?

A cold hand ran down Kai's spine.

That couldn't be a coincidence.

If anyone would know for certain, it would be Jo. He was just finishing his cake, and reaching for his own phone to call her, when it rang. He raised his brows at the name flashing on his screen.

"Not the sister I was hoping to talk to."

"Hello to you, too, Kai," Liv said in her usual brusque manner.

"How's the weather like in Portland?" he drawled. "Are you finding your job challenging but fulfilling? Are the twins teething yet?"

"Kai…"

"Hey, you're the one that wanted small talk."

"It's called courtesy, Kai. You pick up the phone. You say hello. You pretend to ask after my health and well-being before you start bitching about me calling you. I know it's hard for an ex-sociopath like you to understand these things…"

"Did you have a reason for calling Livvie poo or did you just feel like pissing me off?"

She was silent at that, the anger in his voice coming through loud and clear.

Kai took a deep breath. His sister's insensitivity wasn't anything he wasn't used to – anything that overly bothered him. Ordinarily, he wasn't a sensitive guy so Liv's abrasiveness rarely made a dent. But these days, between certain black-haired green-eyed witches reappearing in his life to give him a hard time and a Pandora's box of bad memories cracking open, references to his past affliction rubbed him the wrong way.

"Why did you call, Liv?" He asked, dropping his tone a notch.

She cleared her throat. "Dad. Said I should call. About the Council seat."

Kai guffawed. "Don't tell me you want it?"

"Heavens, no!" Her voice alone gave him a vivid mental image of blonde curls shuddering. "But Dad's been breathing down Jo's neck and mine for the past week _because of you_ and I wasn't ready to fight him over this as well."

"So you want me to be the bearer of your bad news? Do I look like your errand boy, Liv?"

"Jeez, Kai, it's not like I'm asking for a big favor."

He considered it. "Fine," he said grudgingly. "I'll let him down easy-"

"Maybe not right away," she said hastily. "Give it a few days. Let him think that I considered it for longer than the length of his phone call?"

"You want me to be your errand boy _and_ your solicitor," Kai muttered. When he only heard silence at the end, he shook his head. It was definitely his inner Luke that let Liv get away with being such a brat. "Got it. But it's going to cost you. I need a favor."

"Huh."

Kai rolled his eyes. "Don't sound so enthusiastic. I need you to find me a couple of Envoys in Portland that you absolutely trust, and put them on discreet guard _and_ surveillance duty on Bethany Stewart. Discreet being the operative word. She can't know she's being watched or protected."

She made a sharp sound of surprise. "Why? What's going on?"

"No questions, Liv. Your brain won't be able to handle the answers."

"Fine then. But look, what you're asking isn't a piece of cake. This is an ex-Chief we're talking about. I don't know anyone good enough and trustworthy enough to do t…"

"Don't even pull that one on me. You've been an envoy since you turned sixteen. Part of the _Regium Disciplina*_ that you and Luke got as potential Praetor that the likes of me were not deemed good enough for." He felt the old bitterness rise inside him, no doubt exacerbated by his father's callousness of before. He pushed it aside. There was no time for that now. "You and Luke worked side by side with other envoys. Bonds formed in the trenches, and all that. Orgies, too, I daresay. Surely there are people you can trust with your life? I mean, that's the whole point, isn't it?"

Liv was silent for a while. Just as Kai was about to prompt her, she spoke with a stilted voice. "Shouldn't _Luke_ also know a few names, then?"

It was Kai's turn to be silent, the question throwing him for a loop.

"I mean," his sister said and he was acutely aware of how thick her voice was, "you have his memories, don't you?"

"It doesn't quite work that way, Liv," he said, and he tried, he truly did, to make his voice gentle. But even to his own ears, his words sounded harsh.

She had never done this before – referred directly to the Merge – and he simply had no way to react to it, except to respond with the discomfort that talking or thinking about it made him feel.

After a dragged-out silent moment of acute discomfort, Liv exhaled noisily. "I guess not then. I'll text you some names. Discreet bodyguard duty for how long again?"

"Pay attention, Liv. If you're ever going to be Councilor, you need to keep your ears open and your mouth shut."

"Who said-"

" _Pay attention_. Discreet protection _and_ surveillance on Bethany Stewart. I need her watched, protected and unaware 24/7. And I need them to do this for as long as I fricking want them to do it, _capische_?"

She snorted. "Yes, sir. I'll tell my people. But you know I've got zero authority so you'll still have to-"

"You're a Parker. Flex your muscles a bit. Maybe Dad is right about this Councilor thing."

"No¸ he is _not_."

"Maybe not, Liv," he murmured. "Maybe yes. What's that saying? Even a broken clock is right twice a day."

"Kai… don't even…"

"Liv? Ready for another round?" A vaguely familiar male voice suddenly intoned from Liv's end of the call.

Liv shrieked, her voice fading. "Seriously? First Jo, now Kai? Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Ugh!" Kai groaned, turning green. He had just been scarred for life and he would probably never recover. Why was this happening to him? Hadn't he suffered enough? Couldn't twelve months of quasi-penance earn a guy a break?

Almost afraid to, he asked: "Er… who is that?"

There was rapid whispering in the background, then Liv was back on the phone.

"Kai..."

"On second thoughts, I do _not_ want to know. The mental images… _oh my god!_ Just don't tell me you're entertaining suitors down the hallway from the twins? Because I really don't want to be the one to blab to Jo…"

"I'm not at Jo's! I'm actually at-"

"- and that's already TMI. Just," he paused dramatically, "please do me a favour, Livvie poo?"

"What?"

"Please stay safe…"

"I can take care of myself-"

"… because twins run in our family and I can only be an emergency babysitter for so many babies."

" _Kai!_ "

"Cheerio, Liv. Gotta call Jo now."

"Kai. Hey, Kai-"

He cut the call, chuckling to himself. Pay it forward, right?

He glanced around. Some of the other patrons had left but just as many had taken their places. The waiter came over, and Kai ordered another slice of the cake – it really had been amazing. Plus, he was apparently early for his noon appointment with the emissary from the Southern Faerie Court. Even though according to his watch, it was almost one. Faeries were notoriously late but this was getting ridiculous.

But it gave him more time to think.

 _You and Luke worked side by side with other envoys. Bonds formed in the trenches, and all that. … That's like the whole point, isn't it?_

 _Envoys._

Joshua Parker - that self-righteous old bastard of a father - had been affronted that Kai hadn't sent envoys to the exiles, that Kai had preferred to trust outsiders instead of their coven's go-to department for these matters.

The old man's capability of revising history would never fail to amaze Kai. Joshua was acting like if it wasn't _his_ fault that Kai did not have the trust and camaraderie that he _should_ have with the envoys. That decision had been _entirely_ his parents'. The envoys were an exclusive club and they had chosen to rescind their oldest twins' invitations.

If Kai were to describe what an envoy was to a mundane, he'd probably say 'soldier'. But they were much more than that. Depending on the nature of their assignments or their rank, they acted as spies, as ambassadors, as healers, or as assassins. In certain numbers, they accelerated difficult spells, provided conduits to an immense amount of power to the Praetor. While Councillors were political appointments, and Elders were based on heritage, to be an Envoy was based on sheer merit. They were the crème de la crème of the Gemini coven. The most talented, the most powerful, the most resourceful of wizards.

Most importantly, they answered only to the Praetor himself – although they were obligated to respect the Council or a quorum of Elders in extraordinary circumstances. For this reason, future leaders always served as Special Envoys – to foster a comradeship between Praetor and the senior and Chief Envoys that would last their whole lives. Kai's own mother had served as an Envoy alongside Joshua and his brother before Joshua's merge. Kai and his siblings had grown up seeing a lot of familiar faces around his parents – Patrice Lang had been one. So had the Stewart women.

And as for the others…

He picked up his phone and dialed Jo.

* * *

 _Portland, Oregon_

The sound of the blow-dryer drowned everything else and Jo didn't hear her phone ring. Alaric had to tap her on the shoulder and hand it to her, before she realized that Kai was calling her. She mouthed her thanks to him as he slipped out of the room, indicating that he was going to check on the twins.

The call had already ended by the time she turned off the dryer so she called her brother back.

"Have you spoken to Dad?" She asked straight off the bat.

"Hello, Jo. So nice to hear from you after so long."

"Have you?"

"Yes, Sissy. I've checked in with the old man. Now can you pretend to care about my well-being?"

"Where've you been Kai?"

"It's too long to get into on the phone," he said and the seriousness in his voice gripped her.

"Kai, what is going on? The exiles came back in droves. Your terms were generous. The Council is complaining that they were _too_ generous."

"I know," he said, sounding irritated. "How monstrous of me for wanting to save as many witches as possible. But that's not why I'm calling."

"Go on."

"I've been thinking about our murdered exiles, and it hit me that every single one of those witches – Briggs, Briggs, Stewart… They all served as envoys with Mom and Dad, didn't they?"

Jo gripped her phone.

"Jo?"

"Go on," she said as neutrally as possible.

He made an impatient noise. "You said that already, Jo. Isn't that enough? You don't think that's too much of a coincidence that of all the witches in exile, scattered across the country, the heretics only killed the ones that fit this description?"

"OK, now that you put it that way, it does seem like there's a pattern in there…"

"Wow, you're slow today, Jo. A pattern? I think someone is using the heretics to carry out a personal vendetta."

Jo choked, her body shaking as she tried to cough out the sudden dryness in her throat.

"You OK, Jo?"

"I-I'm good," she gasped. She bent over the sink and slurped some water. Then she slapped some on her face and sat back, heavily in her chair.

"Jo, still with me?"

"Yes." She took a beat, thought through her next words carefully. "You know, it might look suspicious but this could all just be a coincidence. The Briggs were married, living together so they really count as one hit. They'd been in Mystic Falls for a year. Judith Stewart died shortly after she arrived in Virginia, too. Perhaps the heretics just targeted them because they were Gemini witches in the neighborhood. They've never needed a particular reason to want to kill us before, as we know very well."

Kai snorted his agreement. "Tell me about it."

"Perhaps… if they had killed someone outside the state… a fourth murder that fit this pattern..."

Kai was silent for a while.

"Kai? Was there a fourth murder?"

"No," he said finally. "Just these three so far."

She let out a shaky breath, then cleared her throat again, and hoped that her voice sounded neutral. "Test your theory by all means, but don't put too much weight on it."

"I won't."

"So… where are you, anyway?"

"Won't you like to know?" he said, lightly.

"Kai!" she gasped.

"Gotta run, Jo. I think my date's around the corner. Say hi to my girls and your old man."

The line cut.

She wrapped her wet hair in a towel, and left her room with her phone in hand.

When she walked past the nursery, she could hear the low murmur of voices that told her the twins were awake, but, more importantly, that both Gab and Alaric were in there playing with them. Still, to be careful, she grabbed the monitor from where it hung next to the phone on the kitchen wall, and hooked it to her belt before she went to the study.

"… _gonna walk first, I tell you. Too impatient to crawl that one…"_

Gab's voice came low but distinct through the monitor. It was a little distracting but this way, Jo could know for certain if either of the adults left the nursery and surprised her in the middle of what she was about to do.

"… _dated a guy called Tommy as a kid. Tall, strong, not much of a wizard but definitely a lot of man, if you know what I mean. Sort of like you…"_

What? Jo thought, almost laughing out loud. Was Gab hitting on her husband? If the horrified spluttering answer he gave was any indication, Alaric definitely thought so. What a pity that she couldn't tease him about this later.

Doing her best to tune out this slightly alarming conversation, Jo shut the study door softly behind her, and went to the bookshelf that held her collection of medical references. She pulled out the specific book where she hid the spiral journal.

"… _all set to make it to the altar, and we would have if not for Judgy Judy_ …"

Jo didn't even need to flip through; the book opened to the page with the list. By now, she knew it by heart but she was filled with an obsessive need to see the names with her own eyes.

 _M. Linus_

 _G. Briggs._

 _V. O'Sullivan._

 _J. Stewart_

 _P. Lang_

She took a pen from Alaric's desk, and put two question marks next to the name.

"… _wasn't good enough for her precious brother anymore so she broke us up…" Gab snorting with laughter._

Jo's fingers slid past _P. Lang_ to the last names on the list.

 _Q. Ghiacci._

 _B. Stewart._

She pulled out her phone and typed out a message.

 _'Lang confirmed?'_

She was about to slid it back into her robe pocket, when it buzzed.

 _'Negative.'_

Jo shook her head. What did that mean? He was either dead or he wasn't. If he wasn't dead, won't he have contacted one of them at least? And if he wasn't dead, then where was he? Who was hiding him?

This didn't make sense.

"… _people call them the Stewart girls … forget that they aren't even really sisters_ …"

All thoughts of Patrice Lang's existence went out of her brain like a whoosh as Jo stared down at the monitor in horror, her heart pounding.

"… _Is it true that Judith is dead?..."_

Her hands fumbling with her phone, the journal and its hiding place, it took her minutes where it should have taken seconds for her to put everything back in place.

"… _his little girl was even in the wedding, wasn't she ?…"_

 _Oh God!_ Jo thought furiously as she all but ran out of the study and to the kitchen. She slammed the monitor on the counter. _I'm going to kill that old witch!_

She grabbed one of the spoons hanging from the hook, and clambered on the kitchen counter and started yanking down the pots suspended above the island.

They smashed down on the counter, bouncing off it, and onto the floor in a cacophony of metallic thunder.

She switched off the monitor as shouts came through, putting it back in its place. By the time, Alaric ran into the kitchen, his face tense, gripping the stitches on his sides, Jo was on her knees on the floor, making a show of gathering the pots.

"I'm so sorry," she gasped. "I was reaching for the pan, then I got clumsy, made this whole mess…"

"Gosh, you scared me half to death!" he managed to say, gasping between breaths.

"Sorry," she cried. "I hope I didn't wake the twins."

He joined her on the floor. "Oh, they're fine. They were already awake. Gab is with them. I ran here thinking god knows what was happening. Thank goodness, you're OK. Nothing here seems to be broken…"

She snuck glance at him as they worked together. His face was strained with exhaustion from his run, but otherwise he seemed his usual self-possessed, good-humored self.

When they got the pots on the counter, he gave her a peck on the cheek. "I'll get these up. You go and finish … your hair and stuff…" He gesticulated at her half-dressed state with his hand.

"…and stuff," she teased.

He half-smiled and then turned to hang up the pots.

She was half-way up the steps when it hit her. Semi-dressed, with her wet hair hanging all over her face and her husband hadn't tried to make fresh with her. A peck didn't count. Of course, she had scared him half to death with the pots. He was still getting his wind back.

Yet still…

Gab was peeking out of the nursery, Rachel peering bright-eyed from her arms, when Jo reached the second floor.

"Is everything OK?"

Jo all but shoved the old woman back into the nursery. "You're here to take care of my kids, Gabbie, not gossip with my husband behind my back, do you understand me?"

Gab's bright eyes blazed at Jo. "You watch how you speak to me, Sissy."

"I haven't been little Miss Sissy in a long time," Jo snarled. "Don't think that because I don't have magic, I won't know how to deal with you if I have to. Don't you ever forget who I am."

The old nanny shrunk immediately. "'meant no harm, Miss Josette, I promise," she whimpered, looking away.

Rachel started sniffling.

Jo slanted a gaze at her daughter, fear-fuelled anger giving way to guilt.

"You… just mind your own business, Gab, and everything will be fine."

With a last baleful glance, she walked out of the nursery.

In a half-hour, she was finally done dressing, and she went looking for her husband. She found him sitting at the counter with his laptop open, and Martha playing on the mat beside him. His face was furrowed with concentration.

She pecked him on the cheek and he smiled up at her. Casually, she glanced at his screen – he was checking students' records. She recognized the high school's homepage.

"Work?" she murmured, trying to sound more concerned than relieved.

"Yeah, sorry. I don't want it to pile up." He shut his laptop. "Feel like pizza? The twins aren't ready to sleep. I don't think Gab will have a chance to cook before she leaves for the night."

"Why don't I cook?" she asked, mischievously.

Alaric swallowed with exaggerated nervousness. "Er…"

She tossed the kitchen towel at him and he laughed.

She bit back a sigh of relief as she turned her back to him and headed for the phone on the wall. He was fine. _They_ were fine. That inkling of disquiet had been all in her head - her own guilty conscience. As she dialed the pizza place, she glanced at the baby monitor hanging beside it. Something about it made her pause, but the pizza guy picked up and she didn't think about it for a long time.

* * *

 _New Orleans, Louisiana_

Kai stared at Patrice Lang's phone like if it would grow teeth and bite him. Then he stared at his own phone as if it _had_ bitten him.

It was ridiculous. He was being ridiculous. It would have been the easiest thing to pick up Lang's phone, call Jo's number, his voice disguised as the dead man's, and see how she'd react.

Because if his twin sister, the one person Kai trusted above all others to have his back, was plotting against him then the sooner he knew, the better.

He reached for the phone – and picked up his own, instead.

 _Coward._

He started by dialing Liv's number, changed his mind and typed a message instead.

 _Check the archives for all the missions where the following Envoys were assigned at the same time: Briggs. Sullivan-Briggs. Stewart. Lang._

After the message went, he brooded for a moment, then tapped out another one.

 _ASAP._

He went back to brooding, feeling the balmy Louisiana humidity soaking through his shirt. It suited his mood. He felt like if he was sweltering in uncertainties and betrayals. Crazy twin vampire witches were murdering people to get back at him. His father and his sister might be plotting to betray him. The faeries he was supposed to be meeting here had apparently stood him up – and without the connections from the Southern Court, sleuthing for Gemini witches in New Orleans, a city rife with the magical equivalent of warring mafia gangs, had just gone from difficult to near-impossible.

Oh, and Bonnie Bennett still hated him.

Lest he forgot the stale icing on the top of the rotten cake that was his life.

A familiar aura, hovering between neutral and suspicious, seemed to jab him.

Kai sighed. Perfect timing. After all, his life couldn't get any more complicated right now, could it?

"Penny for your thoughts," drawled Vincent Griffith as he took the seat across from Kai, his drink in hand.

Kai regarded the grim face of the Regent of the Nine Covens of New Orleans. "Perfect," he muttered.

"I know, right?" Vincent said mildly. "Bumping into you here. On my turf. Without notice. Borderline violating the treaty-"

"The operative word there being 'borderline'," Kai pointed out. "And can't a man go on a private vacation and have some cake in peace without announcing his presence? Last I checked, it's still a free country."

Vincent hmmed. "And if I were to turn up unannounced in Portland, you'd feel exactly the same way, right?"

"You won't have your powers in Portland," Kai snarked. The Covens of New Orleans were bound to their Ancestral Plane.

Vincent smirked.

That's when Kai remembered. "Ah yes, you got rid of that millstone of the mystical variety. Ballsy."

Vincent laughed. "They had it coming." A flicker of bitterness passed over his face briefly.

"I daresay," Kai agreed, thinking about crusty old wizards like his father, Patrice Lang and members of the Council. He won't mind putting _them_ in an ancestral plane and blowing it up. "But that unbinds _all_ your witches from NOLA. Aren't you worried about the far-reaching consequences of that?"

"Aren't you worried about the far-reaching consequences of heretics in Virginia?" Vincent retorted.

Kai winced. "Low blow."

"Let me worry about my coven, Kai Parker and you worry about yours," Vincent said, pleasantly but firmly.

Kai decided that this was a good time for a truce. "Believe it or not, I would have come to you."

"Really?" Vincent sounded extremely skeptical.

Kai eyed the other man, who sipped his drink coolly. The first time Kai had met Vincent Griffith he had been neck deep in magical and personal crisis. He hadn't been interested in the Gemini's offer for a treaty. It hadn't been easy convincing him – and things had got hairy at various points in time with all the constant warring that took place in this city, so pivotal to so many conflicting supernatural communities. But Kai had persevered, and eventually an understanding had been formed not just between the two leaders, but also between the other factions in the South.

From the way Vincent looked now – a far cry from that harried, burdened wizard of months ago – the treaty had served him well.

So well in fact that rumor had it that he was considering entering into other, more controversial accords.

"So there's talk of you and the Augustine Society forming an alliance." Alarm trickled down Kai's spine at the way Vincent merely blinked. "Griffith, you can't be serious-?"

"Your coven has the anti-mundane policy, not mine."

"First, it's not an anti-mundane policy, it's a 'what mundanes don't know, won't hurt us' policy. Secondly, it is one thing for your coven to have an agreement with your 'Human Faction'." Kai hoped that his use of air quotes indicated his opinion of the society of mundanes in New Orleans who regularly interacted with the supernatural society. "It's another thing for you to affiliate with a secret society whose raison d'être is the weaponization of magic. Mundanes can barely manage their metal guns and you want to give them magic guns?"

"That's not all the Augustine Society does," Vincent said mildly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all about the rest of the window-dressing. But let's not kid ourselves here. Tell me you're not considering this."

"I want to hear what they have to say. Aren't you curious, Parker? The Society was supposed to be defunct. The founding members all murdered-"

Kai cringed, thinking about the one responsible for that. It was incredibly, really, how much havoc Damon Salvatore had not only caused during his relatively short existence as a vampire, but had escaped the consequences of. The Devil indeed took care of its own.

"-and the legacy carved up and sold off. Don't you want to know the story behind their sudden revival? Don't you want to know who's leading it now and why?"

"Only enough to stop them."

"I thought the Gemini had a non-mundane-interference policy?" Vincent challenged.

"Not when they're interfering with us first," Kai retorted.

Vincent grimaced, rubbed his chin with his hand. "OK, I will be plain with you, Parker. There are some mundane societies that have my respect, but the Augustine Society is not one of them. You are preaching to the choir when you argue about their methods and motivations. They call themselves a society, but I regard them as more of a cult." His gaze turned brooding. "Talking of which, are you facing the same upsurge in cults that we are? The sooner those shapeshifters are caught, the sooner these idiotic dragon-worshippers would lose their inspiration."

Kai shrugged. "Let them have their fun with their dragon-wannabe, I say. Mundanes love their doomsday stories. It makes them feel relevant."

Vincent scoffed.

"If you don't care for the Augustine," Kai pressed, "then why are you allowing them to court you?"

"Like I said, I'm curious. And… they have something that Freya Mikaelson wants."

Kai almost choked on his outrage. "Hell! Seriously, Griffith?"

"She's throwing a party for them in a few days. You're invited," Vincent added the last as an after-thought.

"Gee, thanks," Kai groused. He shook his head. "I don't believe you. Freya Mikaelson? That's why you're dealing with the Augustine?"

"You're also invited to dinner at the Abattoir tonight."

Kai stiffened. "Don't tell me that they know I'm here. The last time I was in the same room with the Originals, bad things happened to them."

Vincent snorted. "I heard bad things happened to all of you."

"Most of the bad things happened to them," Kai insisted. "Negotiating with the Originals was… painful." In every sense of the word. "Our relationship is like a budding flower, fragile and precious. Why would I want to jeopardize it?"

"Well, Klaus is gone. Kol is away. So is Finn but he was on your side, if I remember. Elijah and Rebekah remain but as long as Freya is around, everyone's going to be civil. Admit it, Parker: things only got ugly last year when she wasn't present."

Reluctantly, Kai nodded.

"So… unless you do something to tick _her_ off… like not show up at the dinner she's so graciously invited you to…"

"That's too bad then because I'm not coming."

Vincent chuckled and drained his cup. "You sure about that?"

Kai was about to give him a sarcastic affirmative when, with a low, melodic sound, a faerie stood before them.

From a distance, it could pass for human. It had the shape of a human, wore the clothes of a human, and he knew when it spoke, it would sound like a human. Most mundanes could never even tell – they might wonder why this person's skin was so clear, and why they always wore the same clothes, or why their hair was so vibrant, it almost looked alive – but in their uncanny way of deliberately blinding themselves to the supernatural, their mundane minds would never make a connection.

Not for other supernaturals though. They could see the pointed ears, the slightly higher-than-natural cheekbones; the strands of living hair, and the clear blood flowing under the skin. They could see that their clothes were as much a part of their bodies as their skin, not fabric but leaves, seaweed or even feathers, depending on the faerie's element.

And witches could feel their magic – faerie magic was hard to define and subjective to the witch that came in contact with it. Some described it as soothing, hypnotic. Others found it brash, invasive. However it was felt, once it was, it was impossible to forget.

" _Greetings."_

It didn't so much as speak with its mouth as its thoughts echoed through Kai's head.

"Greetings," Kai said formally. Vincent said the same.

Kai eyed the other Regent warily, then turned to the Faerie. "Letting him in on my personal request to you guys… not cool, not cool at all."

" _The Nine are aware that we hunt our errant brothers."_

"I'm not talking about the shapeshifters," Kai said through gritted teeth. "I'm talking about my witches."

" _The Nine are aware that the Gemini exiles are currently in custody of the Originals."_

Kai looked up sharply at the Regent of the Nine Covens.

Vincent laughed out loud as he rose to his feet, and threw cash on the table. "Sleep on it. The dinner – and the party."

He actually whistled as he left, not a care in the world. Kai spent a long moment considering if he'd be violating the hard-worn treaty by hexing the Regent of the Nine in the back. Considered if it won't be worth it.

Then he turned back to the faerie with a resigned sigh.

"Tell me everything."

* * *

 _Portland, Oregon_

Alaric had heard everything, of course.

He had been rising to his feet, his arms full of pots and pans, adrenaline still coursing through him from his fright, when his eyes had fallen on the baby monitor on the wall – and it hit him. She had done this on purpose. Created this catastrophe to get Gab to stop talking.

Somehow he had kept his head; he had pecked her cheek, cracked a joke and waited for her to leave. The moment his wife disappeared up the steps, he turned on the monitor and heard everything.

He had done his best to play it cool; had even brazenly checked up Judi Stewart's school records in his kitchen table as she walked by him. But inside, he was cold. Inside, he was lost.

The next day, he watched old wedding videos in his office and arranged to see the girl herself.

That first meet had been brief. She was reticent about talking about the coven – even her own family – in the confines of the school. She suggested the local tween hangout in half-an-hour and Alaric had no choice but to go along. School had been out early so it was ten minutes to one when he arrived. He sipped his café in his booth and tried not to second-guess the decision that brought him there.

She arrived fifteen minutes late, arm in arm with another girl, whom Alaric recognized easily enough as the second Gemini girl in his wife's train. Toni Ghiacci. From his snooping, he knew that they were soccer teammates and good friends. They weren't the only witches in the school, but they were the only female ones in their grade. Judi had already made it clear that the other girl would be part of the interview. Alaric remembered Jo talking about the Ghiacci family and how they had a dark reputation in the coven. In fact, Kai had ousted a Ghiacci from the Council and several of them were still in exile. In addition, Alaric had discovered that like her friend Judi, Toni was currently living with grandparents, although for completely different reasons. Toni Ghiacci's parents were not dead, but on some protracted sabbatical in Europe. They were not in exile – technically – but they had certainly managed to steer clear of Portland for the better part of Kai's reign.

Meanwhile, the Stewarts were supposed to be one of the most honourable families in the coven. Yet the two girls were best friends. It was interesting – and nice – to see that the politics of their elders had not coloured the younger generation.

They joined him and ordered lattes. They had changed out of their uniforms to jeans and pastel tops. They looked young and carefree and no one passing would ever guess that they were powerful witches from an ancient coven.

If anything, Alaric thought suddenly and uncomfortably, anyone passing would be wondering what two young girls were doing in this place with a middle-aged man.

After exchanging greetings, there was a moment's awkwardness.

"So," Alaric said finally, breaking the ice. "Thank you again for agreeing to talk to me."

"Thank you," Judi said fervently. "You're the only person who's…" She cleared her throat. "Since my parents, then Aunt Judith, no-one's…" Her eyes were shining. She turned away, blinking rapidly.

"I'm so sorry," Alaric said, feeling like a heel for dragging this poor girl who had already lost so much into this.

According to the official death records, Tommy and Helga Stewart had died in a spontaneous fire in Mystic Falls in May _ 2012. Alaric was part of the group of people that had come up with that story. Of course, the 'spontaneous fire' that had taken so many had been the finale of his wedding-turned-battlefield.

He had met a few of the Gemini witches who had lost their loved ones that night; and no matter how irrational he knew it was, he always felt a bite of guilt in those encounters. Now in these circumstances, that bite was magnified by a thousand.

"Don't be," Toni Ghiacci said, speaking up for her friend. "What she's trying to say is that we're only too glad that anyone _is_ talking to us about this. We suspected there was more to this than they told us. But nope, no one's talking. My family's a bunch of crooks afraid of their own shadows and they've probably spent a fortune on sage for all the burning they do when they want to whisper about their secrets. Then her grandma is loony-tunes…"

"Don't say that, Toni," Judi said, but half-heartedly.

Toni rolled her eyes. "Well, she is. Admit it."

"Is something wrong with your grandmother?" Alaric asked, both to get an opening into Toni Ghiacci's tirade and out of genuine interest. He intended to interview the old woman, who was the late Judith Stewart's sister-in-law and close friend. This news was rather alarming.

"She's totally-" Toni started but Judi cut in.

"She's become a recluse. It started around the time that we all went into hiding when the Praetor came back…" She threw Alaric an awkward look. "Er… I know he's your brother-in-law and all, but there were some really ghastly stories about him. The old Praetor told us to run and we did. No-one knew what to expect from him."

"We didn't expect him to be so drop-dead gorgeous," Toni Ghiacci declared.

"Toni!" Judi yelled, outraged – but her cheeks had turned pink.

"Well, he is, isn't he?" Toni insisted, turning on Alaric for confirmation.

"Ah-" he said, by way of reply.

Fortunately, she turned back to her friend without waiting for his input. "You're lying if you say you don't think he's hotter than Lucas was, and also less gay."

"He killed his siblings."

"They probably deserved it," Toni said blithely.

Alaric wished he could feel appalled. But he had been a foster parent to Elena Gilbert and watched her and her friends date through a series of mass-murdering vampires. He was sadly immune to this.

He tried to get them back on topic. "Your grandmother was acting strange while you were in hiding?"

"She's always been strange," Toni declared.

Judi shot her another angry look, but then she turned to Alaric with a nod. "My grand-mother's always been really into Astromancy. If she hadn't been an Envoy, she might have been a Star-Mage. She's… brilliant, really. But she's also a bit…" She sighed and valiantly ignored the faces Toni was making. "After the Praetor returned and she retired from service, she practically moved into the Observatory. Even with my parents dying…"

She paused then, her eyes shining. Toni had stopped pulling faces. She put a commiserating hand on her friend's arm.

"I'm sorry," Alaric said uselessly.

Judi blinked rapidly and swallowed. "Well… after they died, I started living with her and she was supposed to take care of me but… No but. She _does_ take care of me… As well as she can. I mean, she does her best. But my Dad always said she wasn't a motherly person and it shows. She is so preoccupied with coven stuff, and she was determined to find out what happened to my parents. She has this fixation, you see, that their deaths were not accidental, that they weren't casualties of the heretics's attack."

Toni, who had been looking at her friend all this while, suddenly bowed her head, apparently fixated on the pattern of the table cloth.

Judi didn't notice.

"She even tried to get her old job as Chief Envoy back, but of course no one was going to give it back to her. She was too old, for one, and for another, the Old Guard changes with the Praetor." Judi sighed. "The truth is, Mr. Saltzman, my parents' death hit her hard. If Aunt Judith had been with us, she might have been fine. They always held each other up. But she wasn't and my grandmother got… lost. She went from this vibrant person to this recluse… She never leaves the house anymore… rarely ever leaves her Observatory, really."

Toni perked up. "And when she comes down at all, it's to talk about doom and gloom and the end of the world."

"That's not fair," Judi hissed. "It was just one time; and she was drunk."

"Uh-uh. When your Grandma gets drunk, she rants about dragons falling from the sky, and the coming apocalypse; when we get drunk, we go skinny-dipping and do sex magi-"

"Toni!" Judi said through gritted teeth, throwing Alaric a side-eyed glance to remind her friend that yes, they were still in the presence of their high-school teacher.

Toni clamped her mouth shut; but despite her red cheeks, she threw Alaric a cheeky grin.

He sighed heavily. "I really just wanted to talk about your Great-Aunt Judith."

"Is it true that she was killed by a heretic?" Judi asked at once.

Alaric nodded.

A flicker of pain swept over Judi's face. Even Toni looked ill.

"The way they killed… Your wedding… It was so horrible."

Alaric's face flooded with guilt. Again, he wondered how it had looked like to the Gemini, to these girls. Him turning tail and fleeing, and leaving the others to fight. He didn't regret protecting his _pregnant wife_ but still…

"When they attacked, after the Praetor threw down the anti-cloaking barrier, Grandma Betty went into Envoy mode. She led our group – us, our parents, a couple of envoys, other witches, gave us positions. We took the stage, shooting hell-holes from the sky." Toni didn't seem to notice his shocked expression. "We dragged the two heretics that our parents cornered and sealed them in. One of them hexed my casting hand, then almost _motused_ me in, remember?"

It was Judi's turn to roll her eyes. "How can I forget? You tell us all the time." She threw Alaric a pointed look. "She nearly got dragged in and the Praetor grabbed her just in time."

Toni sighed. Her eyes half-closed, clearly lost in the memory.

Judi had to finish the story. "He kept moving, of course. We had barely started casting hell-holes again when we heard a rumble behind us – and the same two heretics we had just killed were heading straight for us. A strange witch _vatosed_ it, and chased it down. But the other got me in a choke-hold-"

"Scariest thing ever!" Toni cried.

"My mom… my mom came from nowhere. She hexed it. Sent them flying. Dragged Toni and me off the stage and told us to run to the East, where the portal for the kids and elderly, anyone who wasn't injured but couldn't fight, was set up."

Toni's brow knitted, clearly still irritated by this, one year later. "We were a month away from starting envoy-training. We could fight. We weren't kids."

 _But you were, you still are_ , Alaric cried in his head, even as he kept his face neutral. He didn't need this story but if they wanted to tell him, he wasn't going to stop them. Logically, he knew that these girls were not much younger than Elena, Bonnie and their friends had been when they had been dragged into the secret battles of the supernatural. And he, Alaric, had been right alongside them – serving as both protector and general.

Emotionally, he looked at these combat veterans, barely old enough to drive, and he saw Martha and Rachel, fifteen years from now.

Judi shrugged. "You _were_ injured, Toni. Anyway, they thought we were going to lose. The Praetor had gone – we didn't know he'd come back – and the old Praetor was trying to minimize the losses. At least that was what my mom tried to explain to us as she chased us out of there." She swallowed. "That was the last time I saw her, running back to the fight to stand by Olivia Parker and Councilman Parkinson. Next I knew, she was being cremated with the rest of the dead witches."

Toni threw her friend a furtive glance, and bit hard on her lip.

Once again, Judi didn't notice. "I thought the Praetor killed all the heretics. This heretic that killed Aunt Judith… was it part of the group from the wedding?"

Alaric told them all that he knew – the identity of the heretics and the seemingly random attacks in Virginia.

Mostly all.

"So Aunt Judith's death was just… her being at the wrong place at the wrong time?" Judi asked miserably.

Alaric thought of his wife lying about knowing Judith Stewart – any Stewart at all. Thought about his wife threatening Gab the day before.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I was hoping you could help me figure that out. Is there anything that you can tell me about her? Why she was in Virginia in the first place after staying all this while in Nevada? Had she kept in touch with you, your grandmother while she was away?"

The two girls exchanged glances, looking uncertain. Toni shrugged to Judi's unspoken question.

Judi turned to him. "I… I don't…"

"You're Josette Parker's husband," Toni said bluntly.

"I'm not asking on behalf of the Council – or my wife's family," he said.

"So who're you asking on behalf of?" Toni insisted. When Alaric raised a brow at her bluntness, she shrugged. "I'm a Ghiacci. My family's in trouble with the Council all the time. I know when someone's fishing."

Alaric chuckled. "OK, you got me. I _am_ fishing. But not for anyone in your coven. I'm asking on behalf of my friends from Mystic Falls. The heretics are there, terrorizing the place and they're all on their own. I'm trying to help them any way I can and Judith Stewart is the best lead I have. She was from here, Portland, and from this coven."

Toni hmmed, still looking skeptical. But Judi nodded, seeming convinced. "I'll help. If it will stop those monsters then I'll help."

"Thank you," he said, relieved. "So… why was she in Virgnia?"

Judi shook her head. "I don't know. She remained in exile after Joshua asked the rest of us to come out, promised us that Malachai Parker was safe. And even when more exiles returned when they heard what he did at the wedding, how he saved us all, she refused to return. I was forbidden from getting in touch with her. I tried once – I sent an email to an old account I had opened for her years back. She replied it, we arranged to talk on the phone and it was great." She smiled wistfully. "She was cool, my Aunt."

"What did you talk about?"

"Mostly me," Judi said with a small laugh. "Boy trouble." Toni snorted and the other girl shoved her playfully. "Aunt Judith was cool, that way. I asked her to come and she…" She sighed. "She said that she didn't dare. That _they_ didn't dare. Yet."

"They?" Alaric asked.

"She and the other exiles, I guess. It's just an impression I had. That they were all together and they were… waiting for something."

"What?"

Judi frowned, thinking. "I don't know. Now that I think about it, there was something so odd about how she sounded when she talked about herself. At the time, I thought she didn't want to tell me too much to keep me out of it all but now… this sounds odd, but I've thought about it and maybe she was under a Secrecy Spell?"

She looked at Toni. The other girl shrugged. "Maybe the exiles made a pact to protect themselves?"

"I don't think so… I think it was something worse… The more I think about it, the more I feel that she was … afraid… to come back."

"Duh, of course, she was," Toni said flatly. "She thought the Praetor was an evil siphoner that'd turn on us all someday. That's what we all thought in the beginning. Of course, the longer she stayed in exile, the more reason she had to think that he'd never welcome her back. Witches in our coven aren't supposed to go into self-imposed exile," she explained to Alaric. "The Praetor had every right to have them all murdered."

Alaric's jaw fell. _What?_

"Toni!" Judi snapped.

"Well, it's true."

 _What exactly am I married into?_ Alaric wondered, then tried to get his thoughts on track. "So she never gave you a specific reason for not coming back?"

"It was just one conversation. Grandma found out almost at once and she put a stop to it. I think… they were fighting? Grandma and Aunt Judith? I mean, technically we were all forbidden from speaking to her – every witch that remained in the coven was committing treason by being in touch with an exiled witch."

"But everyone broke that rule all the time. My family talks to Uncle Quentin all the time. I'm sure he's met up with my parents in Europe at least once. It's not all just because we're the 'Evil Ghiaccis'. It's hard, you know, being in exile, away from the coven's protection. And how else are you ever going to convince them to come back if you cut them off completely?"

"He's back now, isn't he?" Judi asked, suddenly. "With the others who returned."

A dark cloud crossed Toni's face. "I don't think so."

"But why-"

"I'm sorry," Alaric said, determined to keep them on topic, "but about your Aunt…? You said she and your grandmother were fighting."

"I _think_ they were. I don't know for sure. Just an impression, I got. Snatches of phone conversations that I heard when the sage wasn't burning. Things Grandma would just suddenly mutter under her breath. I really don't know what or why but I just got the impression that they were in the middle of a fight and it may or may not have had to do with Aunt Judith refusing to rejoin the coven." Judi shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

Alaric sighed. "And you don't know why she was in Virginia?"

"I didn't even know that she was in Virginia until you told me that was where she died," Judi pointed out.

Alaric considered both girls before him. Intelligent and curious, it would be hard to get anything past them. But he had to try.

"I don't suppose you know if Judith had any … contact with anyone in my family?"

They both stared at him. "I don't think so," Judi said slowly. "I mean…"

"Why are you asking us, not the old Praetor?" Toni asked, blunt as always.

Alaric blinked.

"They were thick as thieves – him and Judith. Been friends since way back when. Everyone knows that. If she was in touch with anyone, it'd be him."

Now both girls were staring at him suspiciously.

"I didn't know that," Alaric admitted, embarrassed.

"Really?" asked the brash Toni.

"I'm still figuring how things in the coven work," Alaric said honestly. "And, obviously, I don't know my wife's family very well."

"Well, you'd better, don't you think?"

"Toni!" Judi said, throwing Alaric an apologetic look.

Toni scoffed. "What? It's true. Mundane or not, he's Josette Parker's husband. The father of the next Praetor, at this rate. Unless Kai Parker decides to marry soon, have his own kids…" Her eyes turned dreamy then. It was obvious which candidate she had in mind.

Judi snorted softly. "Like he'd marry you."

"Why not?"

"A Ghiacci? As if." Judi rolled her eyes. She turned to Alaric then and missed the dark look her friend threw at her. "Is there anything else, Mr. Saltzman?"

Nothing that she could help him with, he realized. Short of asking her to go digging into her family for information about a connection between his wife and her Aunt, he had got everything he could from her.

"I'd like to speak to your grandmother," he said.

Judi blinked. "Er… I don't think that's a good idea. We told you: she's a little," she threw her friend a glance, as if expecting Toni to throw in a quip but Toni stayed silent, "withdrawn at the moment."

"I could use the school as an excuse. She is your legal guardian and I could force a visit that way."

"You can try. That's about the only way you'd get her to agree to it. Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth your while. She'll probably drag you up to the Observatory and give you a lecture about the Dragon apocalypse."

She threw her friend another glance; the opening was clear. But Toni didn't rise to it, merely smiled weakly. Judi frowned.

Alaric had no interest in this developing teen drama, and he grabbed a napkin. "If you remember anything, if anything at all comes to mind about your Aunt and the heretics," he wrote down his number, "please can you call me?"

She took a snapshot of the napkin; then nudged Toni and made her do the same. The other girl was unusually silent as they got up to leave, clearly still miffed by her friend's casual prejudice.

Judi paused before leaving the booth. "Thanks for… not treating us as kids, Mr. Saltzman."

He smiled at them, and once again the specter of his grown-up daughters flashed in his mind. "Thank you for your help."

He watched them go. There was still a frosty space between them when earlier, they had walked in arm in arm. He hoped they'd work things out. Despite their contradicting personalities, they seemed like genuine friends.

He drained his cold coffee and chuckled darkly to himself. It was the height of irony that he was worrying about a pair of teen BFFs while sneaking around his wife's back, lying to her because of her own web of deceit. What was happening to his life and was he really going about this the best way? Instead of waylaying teenage girls and probably getting a reputation for being the faculty perv, shouldn't he just confront Jo with his discoveries? What the heck was he afraid of – that she'd lie to him some more?

 _No_. He shuddered suddenly – and it wasn't just from the cold coffee.

Or maybe she'd tell him the truth.

And he won't be able to live with it.

"See you soon!" yelled a familiar voice.

He looked up in surprise to see Toni Ghiacci walking through the doors and making a beeline for him.

"Did you forget something?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Made up some story about a date I forgot to meet," she whispered, ducking into the booth. "But I really wanted to talk to you." She eyed him speculatively.

He tensed. "Oh." Oh dear, he really hoped this wasn't about to get awkward.

"Judi's parents weren't killed by the heretics."

He was still holding his empty cup when she spoke and now it slipped out of nerveless fingers to land on the table loudly.

"What? How do you…"

Toni shook her head, impatient. "Just listen, OK? Judi told you everything up to when she passed through the Eastern Portal with the other kids. I couldn't pass through with her because of my injury. The anti-cloaking barrier was very strict. I had to go across the barn to the Southern portal. I told Judi months later, when we finally talked about that night, that I was moments behind her." She bit her lip. "That's not true. Mr. Saltzman, what I'm about to tell you, I have never told anyone before."

He blinked. "Go on."

She took a deep, steadying breath and locked her hands. "By the time Judi's mom realized that she had to take me to the South portal, she needed to rejoin the fight. So she shoved me in that direction, made me promise to go straight through and left me. It was easier said than done with everything going on. By the time, I had made it to the South, the Praetor – who had come back – had commandeered it. Someone directed me to the other side where Olivia Parker was setting up another one for the injured; and I was within reach of it, when I saw that there was a battle happening in front of it. Three witches holding the line against the four who were trying to breach. I was freaking out a little then. I had no idea what the hell I was going to do, when I realized it was my parents and an envoy holding the line." She swallowed. "My parents and an Envoy, against two of the heretics…

 _"and Judi's parents."_

Her eyes were all but drilling into his head and it took him a long moment before it finally clicked.

 _"What?"_

She made a sound that was half-scoff, half-laugh, as if she knew just how incredulous that sounded. "Judi's parents were fighting _for_ the heretics. Judi's parents were traitors."

* * *

 _New Orleans, Louisiana_

Kai had taken Vincent's advice and slept on it. If sleeping on it involved soaking himself in the night life of New Orleans, drinking and dancing – badly – in an open party in the heart of the French Quarter. He might have made out with a Treme witch or two or three. It was hard to remember the next morning. He didn't even remember what the party was for in the first place. Or if there had been one. Sunday night in New Orleans seemed good enough cause to celebrate. Word had spread that the Praetor of the Gemini coven was in town, and suddenly Kai had found himself the guest of honor and the center of attention. He hadn't minded, really. He was young and powerful and full of his own magic and if he somehow got into a drinking competition with Marcel Gerard that he couldn't remember who won, he had the right to, didn't he?

He thought differently when he woke up, thankfully alone and in his own hotel room. His head was pounding too much for him to even make a proper hangover potion and he lay in bed wishing for death.

His wrist itched at the thought, reminding him of his vulnerability, which naturally led to thoughts of Bonnie Bennett backed into the space between Jo's kitchen door and Kai's body, her eyes staring at his mouth. Which then led to thoughts of her, impossibly soft and hot beneath him, her wet, breathy voice crying his name into his ear as he surged into her, their magic entwined and cocooning them both. His body thrummed just with the memories and he wished he had brought home one of those witches from the night before. He needed release and his hand was a poor substitute to what he really wanted.

Well, it would have to do.

When he was done, he was fit enough to hobble together a functional potion and after he took a shower, and worked out some more frustration, he was more clear-headed.

Clear-headed enough to be ravenously hungry. He yelped when he checked the time. It was almost three in the afternoon. He supposed that between hard partying and drinking and jet lag, his body had to give eventually but still…

As he dressed, he considered his options.

Room service wasn't half-bad. But what was the point of getting so hungry if he was only going to eat shoddy hotel food? He helped himself to a bag of chips from the mini-bar. That should hold him until he went downtown for a proper meal.

Food sorted, the next question was what to do about his prodigal witches, and consequently, Vincent and Freya's dinner invitation.

The faeries had been plain – there was nothing they could do to free the Ghiaccis that the Mikaelsons had in custody. The details were long and convoluted but the bottom line remained that the Mikaelsons were perfectly in their rights to keep this particular trio captive. Kai couldn't say he was surprised. A large and old family, the Ghiaccis were notorious for their flagrant use of dark magic and one of the trio, Danielle Ghiacci was someone Kai remembered from his pre-Prison World days to have shown shown early proficiency in the family trade from a young age. Getting into nasty deals with vampires was right up the Ghiaccis' alley. Until recently, that is. Now, thanks to the change in Gemini government, they were subdued, retreating into their various strongholds to lick their wounds and re-brand their house.

Indeed, part of the reason why the Gemini Council was lacking one member was because the unwritten rule that a Ghiacci would always sit on the Council had been rudely broken when Kai ousted Anthony Ghiacci.

Thinking about the outrage on the old man's face when Kai wielded his unequivocal right to retire a serving Councillor cheered him up considerably.

Under normal circumstances, Kai wouldn't have given two figs what happened to the Ghiaccis that were currently wallowing in a dungeon somewhere in the Mikaelsons's compound. Danielle Ghiacci, her husband, Tim and her uncle Quentin, could work out their issues with the Mikaelsons without Kai interfering. Heck, that was the whole point of their self-imposed exile. They had chosen to give a 'fuck you' to the coven, and now the coven had a karmic opportunity to give a 'fuck you' right back.

But these were not normal circumstances. Heretics were on the loose, murdering witches… not entirely randomly. Heretics, who should have died a year ago, but had somehow survived. Heretics, who were no longer exclusively haunting Virginia but had spread their wings as far as Montana and goodness knew where else, hunting, searching for…

What? Who?

Then there was the question about one of the messages that had Kai had received on Patrice Lang's phone. The message where a Gemini exile declared that he was going to do something desperate to stay safe. He was going to choose the deep blue sea rather than the devil.

And now that Kai knew the Ghiaccis's current location, he felt strongly that that message had originated from one of the male Ghiaccis and the Mikaelsons's dungeon was the 'deep blue sea' that they had chosen.

So who was the devil? The heretics…? Or Kai himself?

Kai resolved to find out this night.

Done dressing, he went to the hotel wardrobe to sort out his luggage.

Ordinarily, he did not like dealing with the Mikaelsons. But unlike her hyperactive siblings, Freya Mikaelson was a witch, and a reasonable woman. A simple dinner during which he would discuss the return of his witches shouldn't be too difficult. She would probably – definitely – ask for something in exchange. Kai could appease her if it wasn't unreasonable, or he could re-negotiate, or – better yet – he could make it clear to her that it would be in her own interest not to lead the heretics to her home.

Though, he found the idea of a ringside seat to watch the heretics versus the Originals extremely appealing. Extremely appealing. For a moment, Kai amused himself with that thought. Then he shook it out of his mind. Too risky. It'd be a long, drawn out battle but in the end, un-killable heretics who sucked magic versus magical superhumans only had one outcome. And as much as he'd love to see the Mikaelsons vanish from the face of the earth, and their vampire sirelines with them, that was only going to create a vacuum for another unknown breed of monsters to fill. Nature was a big fan of balance.

Better the monster you knew and all that jazz. It had taken generations of witches years of research, paid for in blood and tears and sweat to understand the ways to co-exist with the vampires. Who knew what new _nefandus bestia_ would arise from the depths of imagination's chasm to fill the space occupied by vampires? How many decades would be spent understanding their vulnerabilities? How many centuries would be spent schooling them in the order of things? How many lives would be damned to do that?

It was all a delicate equilibrium, really, and already there had been so many disturbances. The Other Side collapsing, and then the NOLA Ancestral Plane barely a year later. These dimensions had been conjured by witches, too, not a part of nature from the start but after millennia, hadn't nature adapted to them? And now that they were gone, what was the tip to the scale to even out their loss? What price would be paid – had perchance, already been paid in silence – to fill up the magical craters they had left behind?

For a long moment, Kai stared sightlessly ahead of him, not seeing the balcony in front of him or hearing the rush of the Mississippi, but going further, deeper, his mind and senses, swirling round and round in the abyss.

Then he snapped out of it, with a burst of laughter.

What the fuck? It was probably the low blood sugar that had got him so philosophical at this time of the day. He needed to get something to eat before he started writing his memoirs.

He pushed his feet into his shoes and grabbed his phone. There was a message from Liv. She hadn't found anything yet on the envoys he had asked about; but she had put the detail he requested on Bethany Stewart so Kai was half-pleased.

There was no message from Jo.

He hadn't been expecting one but still…

He checked Lang's phone. It had one new message. It was from the same unlisted number that he had sent the message to – the last number that Lang had tried calling.

' _How did you survive?'_

Good question, Kai thought soberly, remembering the old man's death, his blood and life slipping through Kai's hands. He would have survived if Kai had been thinking faster, working faster, just plain been faster.

He typed a reply.

' _Malachai and the heretics fought. I escaped both.'_

He waited a few minutes for the reply and when it didn't come, he set the phone on a loud vibrate and exited the room, his destination fixed on the same place he had eaten the previous day. It was a nice walking distance from where he lodged. As he made his way through the colonial-style, more-than-fair-priced, allegedly-luxury hotel he was lodging in, he grumbled about the fact that he had to go so far for decent food. He was going to leave a stinker on their Yelp page.

He was halfway down the street when a phone started ringing. A call was coming in to Patrice Lang's phone. It was the same number he had just sent a message to.

 _Finally!_

He whispered the spell to disguise his voice and picked the call. "Hello?"

"Patrice?" asked a vaguely familiar voice. "It's Betty."

Kai felt his stomach drop.

"Where are you, Patrice and how are you still alive? Don't give me that bullshit about Malachai and the heretics, you wily fox. I want the truth."

Kai cleared his throat. "Betty, I told you-"

"She said you're next. She hasn't missed any of us so far."

"T… then she missed me."

"Whatever you did, keep doing it. No one can know for certain you're alive. As long as the heretics are not sure of your fate, the rest of us are safe."

"I will."

"But for how long? Patrice… I know you will find this hard to accept, but we might have been misled about Joshua, and Malachai, and…" She swore softly. "I cannot even speak it all. We are bound … fated by this ill-advised Secrecy Curse to our doom!"

"A loophole will present itself."

"You know how I loathe platitudes! I want a way out of this, not simpering! I need to live, Patrice. What I'm doing is too important, outweighs everything else. I was blinded by grief and I let myself be misled. If I had known a year ago what I know now, I'd have told Joshua to go to hell the first time he pulled us into his scheme."

"My… Joshua was… persuasive. Don't be too hard on yourself."

A derisive laugh. "I let myself be misled. We all did. Now we're all doomed."

"We'll figure it out. I'm buying us time. When Joshua-"

"Don't speak of him!" Pause. "You're a wily fox, Patrice but I'm glad you're not dead."

The line cut.

For a long moment, Kai stood in the middle of the busy street, his hunger temporarily forgotten, replaying the conversation with Bethany Stewart in a loop in his head.

* * *

 _Portland, Oregon_

Alaric shook his head slowly, confused. "I thought the Stewarts were-"

"The good guys?" Toni Ghiacci scoffed, her face sad. "So does everyone."

"Are you sure of what you saw? In the middle of a war-zone… everything happening so quickly… You were injured…"

She wrung her hands impatiently. "Do you know how many times I've relived that? Done memory spells on myself to make sure I remember everything correctly? _I am sure_. The official story is that her parents were killed by heretics. That they fought and died as heroes of the Gemini. But that was never true."

She took a deep bracing breath.

"I was there. I saw everything. I saw Olivia building the Portal, Parkinson and my parents fending off the Heretics and the Stewarts… Olivia's wolf joined in…"

Tyler.

"But it was fighting wild, attacking everyone who wasn't Olivia. He blocked a hex that my mom threw at a heretic, because Olivia was in its path. It was going to attack my mom, but my dad threw some weird curse at it, and it fell to ground unconscious, changed back into a man.

"After that, it was like a mad double tag team match. Parkinson was dueling with the Stewarts while the heretics and my parents were going at it with hammer and tongs. My mom was throwing dark curses I didn't even know existed." She smirked proudly, briefly, before she sobered again. "But between the heretics and the Stewarts, who were trained envoys, it was a foregone conclusion. Parkinson went down. The Stewarts joined the heretics against my parents. My mom was bleeding, barely standing on her feet. My dad was choking under the wires of dark magic the heretic man was flinging at him. I had to do something. I knew no one else could help. Olivia couldn't leave the Portal half-completed. Everyone else was either fighting or wounded. I had to do something…"

She looked up at Alaric with shiny, anxious eyes as if she was pleading for something. Confused, he just tried to nod encouragingly.

It seemed to work because she went on. "I rushed in, throwing a slicing hex that Uncle Quentin taught me. I was aiming for a heretic but it hit Judi's mom instead."

A horrific silence ensued.

"You killed her?" Alaric whispered, horrified.

"I… I hacked her, knocked her down," Toni said, her voice hoarse. "She… she wasn't dead. But it was enough. Parkinson had got to his feet. I guess they hadn't completely taken him out. Mrs. Stewart was rising to hers, she had barely been on the floor for longer than a second, but it was enough. Parkinson finished her off." She covered her face with her hands.

Oh my god, Alaric thought.

She spoke through her fingers, her voice muffled. "Mr Stewart shouted when it happened, turned his back to his fight, his concentration shot. My mom… she got her chance and took it."

Alaric didn't know what to say.

Toni dragged her hands down her face, and he pretended not to see the streak of makeup left behind. "The whole fight turned so quickly, I guess it took the heretics unawares. Parkinson and my mom together finished the heretic man. The woman was screaming, not magic or curses, just wordless shouting. She must not have realized I had been there - because our gazes caught and she shut up, freezing like if… like if... I don't know like what. She just stared at me, whispering my name." Her eyes turned wondering, as if till now, of all the unnerving things that had happened that night, that was the one thing that stayed with her. "How did she know my name?"

It took Alaric a moment to realize that she was waiting for a reply.

He shrugged, helplessly. "I have no idea."

"She was still staring at me, when my dad cut her down. Parkinson sliced off their heads, levitated them and moved them to the other side of the field where the Praetor was doing... something. Olivia had finally finished the Portal. She had gone to her wolf. The Stewarts were just lying there… dead… My parents started coming to me." She grimaced. "I don't know if they were going to hug me or hex me. They looked spitting mad. Like if it was my fault that I had got caught up in a warzone. Like if I hadn't been at the right place, at the right time.

"And then–" Her face sobered, fear creeping into her eyes. "Then she came."

Gooseflesh broke out over Alaric's neck; her fear was palpable, contagious. "Who?"

"That mundane girl that stood with Jo. Her maid of honor? Not Olivia Parker, the other one. The mundane girl? I think she was her student?" She bobbed her head earnestly, her eyes trying to prompt him.

Alaric blinked, trying desperately to follow this unexpected turn in her narration. It took him almost a minute before he realized who she must be talking about.

"Elena Gilbert? You saw Elena Gilbert?"

"Tall, dark curly hair, totally gorgeous in this naughty-but-nice kind of way?"

Alaric nodded slowly, still mostly confused although he couldn't help thinking that that was a better description for Katherine Pierce than Elena.

But that was even more impossible.

"You saw Elena Gilbert in the middle of the fight?" he repeated.

"Saw her and spoke to her. Or rather, she talked to me – like if I was five. 'You need to go straight home. Don't give your parents any trouble, if you know what's good for you.' She winked at me." Toni gulped. "It was the weirdest thing. I didn't know her from Adam and she winked at me in this… uncanny way. My flesh crawled. I remember taking a step back in fear, and my parents grabbed my arms and shoved me through the Portal and out of the barn."

She took a deep breath, while Alaric tried to process this.

"Your parents didn't follow?"

"They weren't injured. They had to keep fighting. I don't know if you remember this at all, but my parents and I stayed in the Praetor's apartment." On cue, her cheeks pinkened. "He was barely around most of the time. And when he was, he was locked in his room and when he wasn't, my parents made me stay in ours. He made them jumpy even then. I never even actually saw him in there, to be honest…"

"Toni," he urged.

"Yeah, well, like I said, I stayed in the Praetor's apartment. The wedding night, we all took shelter in this big mansion that the envoys and I think the old Praetor and his daughter had set up with wards to receive everyone that was sent through the Portal during the battle. It was part trauma center, part refugee camp. My hand was healed almost at once, and I was put in charge of the younger kids. I tried to find Judi… to tell her… but she was working in another wing in that humongous house and by the next morning, her grandmother had whisked her away, had probably broken the news. I think I fell asleep on my feet working. My parents were there when I woke up; we went to the Praetor's flat to gather our stuff. The party was over. We were leaving for Portland right away." She paused to breathe.

"Then?"

"I tried to talk to my parents about what happened. Why did the Stewarts turn on them? Did the heretics, I dunno… _compel_ them or something? A normal vampire can't compel a witch but who knows with these _things_? But all my Dad told me was: 'Your friend has sufficient tragedy for one night. Do not add to it. The official report is that her parents died heroes. Do not disillusion her.'"

Unexpectedly, she snorted. "I thought that was bullshit. She was my _friend._ And, look, my family isn't kosher but if my parents went full-on evil and wanted to self-destruct and take the coven along, I'd wanna know, right? Anyone would." She leaned forward, giving Alaric a hard look as if daring him to contradict her.

"But you didn't tell Judi," he pointed out.

She deflated, falling back into her seat. "Nope. We went back to Portland right away. She had moved into her grand-mother's and I didn't see her for days until the Funeral Rites. Mom and Dad were breathing down my neck, wanting me to hold my tongue. I think the only reason they went to the Funeral, was to keep an eye on me. They had been jittery living with the Praetor and they were acting weirder than usual for weeks after that. Right after the funeral, they came up with the idea of a 'sabbatical' in Europe." She raised her hands in air quotes. "Just in time, as it turns out, before he went after my Uncle Rex the Councilman and the rest of the crooks in my family. I could have told them not to bother." Her mouth twitched bitterly, and her eyes shone with sudden tears. "I wasn't ever going to tell Toni after the way she looked at her parents's cremation. All the witches that died that night were burnt with full honors, fallen heroes. The Praetor himself lit the pyre. The smoke was burning in the Citadel for weeks. There were that many bodies." She blinked, and ducked her face, her hand wiping across her eyes discreetly.

Alaric stared at the table, the familiar sense of mingled grief and guilt swarming through him. It was a while before either of them spoke.

"I wasn't going to take that away from her. I've never told anyone this story," Toni finished hoarsely.

"Until now."

"Until now."

"Even with her grandmother being suspicious about how they died…?"

"Especially with her grandmother being suspicious. Me, a Ghiacci, get in Bethany Stewart's crosshairs? No, thank you. She was the most badass Envoy in her time for a reason. She knew there was something up about Judi's parents's death and she wasn't going to rest until..." Toni's eyes widened. "Oh my god," she whispered. "How did I not see it?"

"See what?"

"Bethany becoming a recluse. I thought she was going cuckoo but it was more than that, wasn't it? She figured it out. She had to. She made up her mind to find out how they died and she did. And retired Chief or not, she'd still have influence with the envoys. She got them to cover it up." Toni scoffed. "That's why she crawled into her Observatory and started going batty. She was ashamed. Her son and daughter-in-law had stained the precious, perfect Stewart name and Bethany couldn't deal."

 _A-ha. So that's what this is about._

Alaric leaned back. Folded his arms. "I see."

His tone was clear and her eyes sharpened. "What does that mean?"

He shook his head, sternly. "You know, up until just now, I almost believed everything you said. But you made the mistake of mentioning my foster daughter. Of all the people, you could have seen that night – not Elena Gilbert. If you had kept her out of this scenario you painted, you might actually have convinced me."

She flushed angrily. "I'm not lying."

He shook his head. She had to be.

After the first surprise attack by the heretics, the vampires and Elena had left. Kai had made a path for Alaric and Jo to escape. Alaric had had to steal a car to leave – he and Jo had been driven to the wedding. They had followed the vampires to the Salvatore Boarding house and they had forted themselves in, prepared to use the house as their last stand if necessary. He and Jo had tried desperately to reach the coven. Then Matt Donovan had called from the hospital in the morning and told them that Bonnie, who had only just survived her traumatic encounter with Lily Salvatore the previous night, had gone ahead to the wedding. Elena and Caroline had been almost out of their minds with worry about their friend.

But as desperate as they all were, no one had left until the all-clear came in the afternoon from Tyler Lockwood.

Toni Ghiacci's story was completely impossible and he told her so.

"I know what I saw!"

"And you've kept it to yourself for almost a year… until now…?" His voice turned compassionate. "That wasn't the first time Judi made a jab about your family name, was it?"

Toni flushed.

"I don't think she was even trying to be mean. The Ghiaccis are kind of a running joke, aren't they," he said, bluntly, "and you play along with it so no one sees how it gets to you. Perhaps you even convince yourself that it doesn't, most of the time. But once in a while, you can't hide how much it does."

"That's now what this is about-"

"Isn't it?" Alaric said, now speaking gently. "It can't be easy for you being best friends with a Stewart. Your friend was being insensitive, not cruel and doing this to get back at her-"

She hissed, and he felt something like an electric shock flash across his hands on the table. He pulled them to himself with a yell. "Ms Ghiacci!"

"If you tell me that you think I'm making this up to hurt Judi, I'll turn you into your frog, Mr. Saltzman!"

People were starting to glance their way. Alaric cringed, thinking about how this must look. "Shh… behave yourself–"

"I know what I saw! The Oh So Noble Stewarts were on the heretics's side. Ask my parents. They'd have to tell you-"

"Aren't they in Europe?" _Conveniently_ , his tone added.

Her eyes flashed. "Ask Douglas Parkinson then. Heck, you're Josette Parker's husband. Ask your freaking sister-in-law."

Alaric gave up shushing her, and threw a nervous glance at the curious patrons. "Fix your relationship with your friend," he hissed. "Hurtful rumors… You can't take them back. If you go telling people this story of yours–"

"Who the heck am I going to tell? A Ghiacci's word against an Envoy cover-up and the Oh So Respectable Stewart name?" She laughed bitterly. "I figured an outsider would hear me out but I guess I was wrong. Nice work, Mr. Saltzman, you might be new to the coven but you've got all the old prejudices down pat."

"This has nothing to do-"

Her eyes narrowed into slits. "I know what I saw," she said for the third time. "You want to help your friends in Mystic Falls? Dig for conspiracies? Start from the Stewarts."

And with those parting words, she left him with his empty cup and his dark thoughts.

* * *

 _September 2013_

 _Portland, Oregon_

The former Chief Envoy lived near the Coast in a beautiful Spanish-style home located on the side of a hill. As he drove into the estate, Kai could see a light flashing in the dome at the top of the building. Bethany Stewart was in the observatory.

She had either spotted him with her telescope or felt his presence through her wards because there were stewards ready to receive him appropriately. Though mundanes, they knew who he was.

Kai had chosen to come at a time when he was not likely to meet Judi Stewart. The young orphan was a poignant reminder of Jo's wedding massacre and the lives that were lost; and he hoped to avoid her. But he was still confronted with her, after a fashion. Pictures of her on the walls of the house, her and her parents, her grandparents from both sides. There were several of her standing or sitting between her grandmother and great-aunt, the indomitable Stewart girls – Betty and Judy.

He bowed his head when he passed them, and made his way up the spiral staircase to the observatory with a heavy heart.

The room was almost entirely walled with glass. At this time of the day, the sun was setting and its yellow light flooded the space unhindered. There were two large telescopes mounted in opposite directions – North and South – in the center of the room. On the only side of the room that was walled with solid wood, a series of charts had been mounted on white boards. A large old-fashioned drafting table, the top of which was almost two feet above Kai's head was mounted in front of the charts and that was where Bethany Stewart sat on an elevated chair, plotting carefully over a chart of constellations.

In the few moments before she acknowledged him, Kai studied her. A mundane would mistake her for a harmless, little old lady, an ageing academic – she looked the part with her petite frame and the glasses that hung on her chest. They won't know that this woman had been a Chief Envoy, with hundreds of kills under her belt: a force to be reckoned with in her time.

She had been, he remembered suddenly, the only one of his parents' friends that he could stand.

It pained him. It might have been easier if she had been someone he had never liked. But maybe that was the point of it all. That this had to be painful. That way, he knew he could feel, that his empathy hadn't slipped away from him.

Sometimes he felt like it would. Many times, he felt like he _wanted_ it to. The long summer had come and gone, and the futile hopes he had clung to when he left Mystic Falls… well, he could acknowledge now that he had had hope. At the time, he told himself that he was leaving for good and not looking back but apparently, there had been a tiny thread of hope inside him.

But his hope had frittered away during the months of distance – distance the length of the Atlantic Ocean across which she had travelled to get away from him.

Ridiculous, he knew. She had gone to Europe to have the time of her life and she had more than earned every moment of it. It had nothing to do with him.

But Kai had been stuck in the States, his Praetor duties wrapping around his legs like vines, clinging to him and almost dragging him down with the weight of the responsibility he bore to his coven. He had thought of her every day and ached for her and wanted her. And every day, the memory of that time in the hotel room in Virginia had haunted him, growing dimmer and dimmer with the passage of time and then he'd think he'd forgotten, he'd think he was over her and then – BAM! – everything came back in crystal-clear focus and he realized that he hadn't even begun, hadn't even started to move past Bonnie Bennett.

Meanwhile, she hadn't even _needed_ to move past him.

"Are you alright, Praetor?"

Kai started, realizing too late how deep he had sunken into his thoughts. Bethany Stewart stood before him, regarding him skeptically through her glasses.

"I… I'm fine." He cleared his throat. Allowed himself just one fidget, before he forced himself to stand still. "Good day, Dame Bethany."

"Good day to you, too, Praetor. I don't suppose you're here to re-appoint me as Chief Envoy."

He shook his head, ruefully. "No."

She sniffed. "Well, I had to ask. You saw my request?"

"You were an excellent Chief Envoy. The new one will struggle to fill your shoes but…"

"I know, I know. I'm old and gray. I'll be honest with you, Praetor. I should never have stayed as long as I did. None of us should have. But the Chiefs change with the Praetor and your Father…" Her mouth pressed into a thin line. "He didn't have anyone to hand over to for a long time."

Kai felt his face prickle with heat. "I'm aware."

She gave him another skeptical look, as if she doubted him. He was used to it. The side looks, the wary glances, the skeptical gazes. They rolled off him like water off his back now but in the beginning, they had scalded. He had had so much good intentions towards the same wretched coven that locked him up. Why couldn't they have seen that?

Then Jo's wedding happened and everything else and … Kai had gained perspective.

They were right to watch him; they were right to doubt him. It was up to him to earn their trust, to be worthy of them. And he had been off to a spectacularly bad start.

"So if you're not here to re-appoint me, Praetor, might I ask the reason for this visit?"

He cleared his throat. He had come here to do two things. The first one was easy.

"I want your opinion on a candidate for Councilship. I'm thinking of nominating Douglas Parkinson. He is one of your Envoys."

Her eyebrows went up. "Parkinson? Mmm?"

"You don't think he's a good candidate?"

"Actually, I think Doug would make a fine Councilman. It would suit him far better than being Envoy."

Kai frowned. That didn't sound too good. He didn't want a reject for the job.

Bethany seemed to understand that. "Doug's an intrinsically honest person. A by-the-books young man. I admire him for that. But being an envoy sometimes involves… subterfuge? It's not enough to be magically competent, you also have to have a certain … flexibility, shall I say, to your personality. A willingness to walk outside the rules. You understand, don't you?"

"No," Kai said quietly. "I was never trained nor did I ever serve."

"Oh. Yes, of course. The…" Her voice trailed off and he could tell by the tightness in her face that she was thinking of his siphoning.

He bit back a sigh. "But I see your point. Thank you for your recommendation. I will nominate Douglas at the next sitting under your advisement."

"That would be wise," she said, nodding firmly. She half-turned to her charts, clearly understanding their meeting to be over, when she turned back to him suddenly. "You never got the proper _Disciplina,_ did you?"

"My father is currently fast-tracking me," Kai answered, as neutrally as possible.

"Indeed." She sniffed, clearly not approving of this. "How well do you know your Arithmancy?"

Kai gazed at the charts on the wall, and smirked. "Try me."

He came to stand beside her and she rapped at a constellation in the northern hemisphere, then peered at him over her glasses. Kai stared hard at it, and dug into that year in 1994 when he had memorized the never-changing constellations of that eternal day.

" _Draco_."

She sniffed again and he bit back a smile. "You know what that means, I hope?"

"The Dragon."

"And the significant recurring celestial event associated with them?"

He shook his head. He did know, as a matter of fact, but he figured he'd let her give the lecture that she was clearly eager to give.

She hmmmed, and poked at her chart. "The _Draconids,_ Praetor. Surely you must have heard of them?"

He shrugged.

"Once every decade, give or take a few years, the _Draconids_ embark on the journey from Draco to our world. It's a journey that is charted, predicted and observed by Astromancers in covens, circles, and other supernatural societies all over the world. It is even observed by the mundanes, only they know it as a 'meteor shower', completely unaware of the magical significance of celestial events."

This was all practically witch genesis stuff. He supposed that if he had been a good little Glinda like Jo, he'd have even learnt this in Wicca School.

"A futile journey," she went on, "because no _Draconid_ has touched the Earth in thousands of years. No matter how fiercely they throw themselves at the _Adger,_ it never yields." She paused significantly, then her voice turned grave. "That's what the Star Mages say."

"I remember," he admitted brusquely. "The showers occur in October. One's around the corner, matter of fact."

He had suddenly realized he was stalling. Indulging her in this detour was just a way for him to procrastinate away the second – and most important – task that he came here to complete.

"Yes," she said slowly. "One is just around the corner." She seemed lost in her thoughts. Her brows furrowed deeply.

He threw her a worried glance. "Are you OK, Dame Stewart?"

Her eyes flashed up at him, the faraway look fading abruptly. "Of course, I am! What kind of question is that?" Then she seemed to remember who she was talking to, and cleared her throat. "Can I help you with anything else, Praetor?"

The dismissal was clear. For a moment, Kai was tempted to take it. It was too soon. Barely a quarter of a year into his reign. There was still so much he hadn't completed, and even more that he planned that he hadn't started. Perhaps a year later? Or five? Would it make much difference?

Did he even really need to do this?

He looked at Bethany Stewart's lined face and remembered the pictures on the wall – her dead son, her dead daughter-in-law, her orphaned grandchild.

He rubbed his suddenly sweaty palms on his pants, and steeled himself.

"I know that you had suspicions about the deaths of your son and daughter-in-law," he said quietly.

It was like if he had shot her. Her spine straightened, her whole body became rigid, then her eyes narrowed into laser-sharp focus on his face.

Kai swallowed against the lump of sudden fear in his throat. She was old, but she was still formidable. It was very likely that he might die in the next few minutes.

Once again, he asked himself if he needed to do this. And once again, he pushed on.

"So I'm here to tell you what happened to them. I'm here to tell you that your suspicions, your questions, your doubts… You were right, Dame Stewart. You were right all along."

She sighed, a long, low exhale. Her eyes gazed on him now, with as much triumph as grief.

"I knew it," she whispered. "I knew there was something… something about the way they died that was wrong. I saw the bodies, I watched them burn and still I felt…" She sighed again. "Tell me, Malachai. What happened to my son? What happened to Judi's parents?"

It was the first time she had called him by his first name.

He blinked quickly, braced himself for it, and put his hand on her right shoulder. The rings on his fingers burned as he whispered. " _Mechionu_."

Secrecy Spells were complicated magic. No ordinary witch could impose its magic on another. It had to be entered completely willingly – duress or blackmail would nullify the bounds of the spell. And it was a dual-binding spell – a ritual, usually with all the parties of the Secret putting equal restriction on themselves. Once successfully done, it was unbreakable. The only way a witch could deliberately violate a secrecy spell is by giving up his or her own life.

That was the way it worked for _ordinary_ witches.

The Praetor had the power to place a Secrecy Spell on any witch in his coven without the strictures of the spell binding him. It was an assholish power but Kai was an asshole ruling an assholish coven, so it was appropriate.

She yanked back, shocked, but it was already too late. The veins glowed blue around her mouth, her eyes, the back of her hands… then dissolved into her skin, leaving no visible trace of the _Mechionu_. But they both knew it had done its work. Neither by speech, script or sight would she reveal the news he was about to share with her.

"Why?" she asked, her body tensing, magic rushing through her.

He stepped back, his hands up. "It was necessary. I needed to know that what I tell you now is never repeated. You can do anything you want with your knowledge. You can do anything you want to me… within reason. But you can't share this knowledge with anyone."

Her eyes were already darkening with realization, with fury, with undiluted hatred before he said what she had just guessed.

"I killed them."

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _New Orleans_

After his meal, Kai had wandered the streets of NOLA, trying – and failing to recapture the reckless euphoria of the night behavior.

The phone call had more than rattled him. It had thrown him into a mental tailspin. It was with enormous self-control that he had prevented himself from calling his father there and then and accusing him. Or worse – porting to Portland, physio-magical consequences be damned – and confronting the two-faced bastard.

It was one thing for Joshua to come at Kai. It was one thing for him to try to undermine him politically, or even physically attack him. But this... Betraying the _coven_?

Coven before family. Coven before self. Duty before love. Weren't those Joshua's mottos? They were practically the first words Kai remembered hearing his father say. He had grown up under that shadow of the Coven, the certainty that his father, the Praetor Magnus of the Gemini, would do anything, sacrifice anyone, even his own blood, for the preservation of the Coven. So why this? Why put the Gemini at risk by rescuing the twin heretics on Jo's wedding night – because that was the only obvious explanation for why they had somehow survived when the others had perished – and setting them on Gemini witches, exiled or not? Did Joshua resent Kai's leadership so much - did he see a siphon as Praetor as such a threat to the Gemini that he was willing to go this far? Demean himself by allying with their sworn enemies?

His father's disapproval of the _venia_ took a more sinister meaning now. Joshua had wanted to keep witches in exile to leave them as easy pickings for the heretics...

Why? To what endgame? To undermine Kai? How would killing exiles achieve that? Or were the exiles only the first wave of executions, with patriots to follow?

And the mysterious 'she' Bethany had mentioned...

 _"She said you're next. She hasn't missed any of us so far."_

Georgiana Parker? Giving her targets a heads-up out of arrogance? Or someone else? And if so, who was she and what role did she play in this?

Night had fallen by the time his splitting headache and worn shoes made Kai end his aimless trekking. He found his way to the hotel though, an unerring sense of direction guiding him. His heart was heavy in his chest, but his body was strung, wired almost. As if he was expecting something. A fight? He won't mind a fight right now. It would be a welcome outlet to all this mental and emotional tension that had plagued him since this whole heretics business began.

 _Since this whole Bonnie business began_ , a sly voice whispered in his head.

He shivered, as he entered the hotel, his heart slamming in his chest at the thought of her. Then he resolutely pushed her out of his mind. He had too much going on right now. This new angle with Bethany Stewart and his father. The upcoming dinner with the Mikaelsons. Heck, throw in Vincent's dance with the Augustine Society to really stir the pot.

He was running late but he still took a quick, cold shower, hoping it would clear his head, ease off some of his tension. As he closed his eyes under the running faucet, a favorite fantasy of his slipped in-between his eye lids. Black hair. Green eyes. Red, curvy mouth. His hand slipped downwards and he came with a shudder that sounded like a sob. He leaned his head against the glass and groaned.

He needed to get laid. Tonight, after the Mikaelson dinner, without fail. He would go into that bar he'd discovered last time – the Rosseau – and take back the first average-or-more-looking chick that gave him a 'come on'. Long months without sex had finally taken their toll. He needed the release to equilibrate his psyche. If he was going to take on his father, Prior Magus of the Gemini Coven, Head of the Council, and a warlock with over 6 decades of magical and political mastery under his belt, then Kai needed every single weapon in his arsenal. He certainly did not need any distractions whatsoever.

And that was all _she_ was, ever would be - a distraction.

His heart was still racing when he changed into formal wear. He had been tempted to go for jeans and sneakers but even he knew that that was childish and more disrespectful of his coven than it was of the Mikaelsons. And, besides, Vincent would just spell him a suit on sight so what was the point?

The Regent himself was waiting for him at the lobby. "You're late."

"Are we on a date?" Kai snarked. "I don't need a ride."

"Wanted to make sure you didn't bail and leave me holding the ball after promising Freya you would show."

Kai was quite certain that Vincent was already holding a ball. A ball and chain by name of Freya Mikaelson. But he spared the Regent that observation and followed him to his car.

"Are you OK?" Vincent asked halfway through the journey. "You seem jumpy."

"I'm having dinner – with vampires – at a place called the Abattoir," Kai retorted. "I am reacting appropriately."

Vincent ignored that. "Did the faerie's news about the shapeshifters bother you any? It's been over a year and they still haven't been caught."

The faerie's message had bothered Kai – but it was the message about the Ghiaccis not the shapeshifters. He shook his head and couldn't bring himself to speak any further. Vincent was right – he was jumpy, his stomach in knots, his nerves taut with anticipation and … eagerness.

The Regent threw him one last worried glance, then shrugged and concentrated on driving.

 _What is this?_ Kai wondered. An uneasy thought popped into his head but he quickly dismissed it. That wasn't possible. She was miles away in Virginia, figuring out how to save her town yet again from its latest supernatural catastrophe.

This was either wishful thinking manifesting… or he was finally getting that long overdue nervous breakdown that his one-time shrink had foreseen. In the darkness of the car, he clasped his shaking hands on his knees.

They finally arrived at the Abattoir. The Mikaelson's home got default points for not looking anything like its name. It was decent enough if you liked your residences looking like the scene from an Anne Rice horror movie.

Two doll-like platinum blondes escorted him and Vincent to the diner.

Kai lifted out of his brooding thoughts to consider them carefully, and then turned to catch Vincent's eye.

Vincent's eyes widened, reading Kai's unspoken question. "No, they're not compelled because –"

"Let me guess," Kai said, cutting him off. "Freya won't stand for it?"

"No," Vincent snapped. "They're not compelled because the drinking water is vervained. For _both_ vampires and mundanes. Remember that the Originals can control both?"

Kai stood corrected. But it was a good distraction seeing Vincent ticked off. He concentrated on the spiteful pleasure he felt at that and not the increasing sense of … impossibility that was growing inside him.

His blood rushed through his ears; and it was all he could do reign in his magic, prevent it from reacting to the proximity of …

No. She wasn't. She _couldn't_ be here.

"Give me a moment," he gasped suddenly, and stopped.

He was sweating, he realized, and not just because of the NOLA climate. He rubbed his hands on his pants, bowing slightly, and conjured a handkerchief.

Vincent and their escorts paused to stare at him as he dabbed his brow clumsily. Vincent looked wary. "Your Gemini sensitivities can't stand a few hours in vampire company?"

"What the- No, of course not. I just need…" He drew in a shaky breath, swallowed hard. His heart was thumping in earnest.

Vincent's brow furrowed in concern. "Are you OK?"

"I'm dandy," Kai said plastering a firm smile across his face. He waved at Vincent. "After you."

With one last worried look over his shoulder, Vincent went on.

 _Pull yourself together, man._

Easier said than done. His emotions were all over the place. Excited, exhilarated, frightened. Furious.

Furious.

What the fuck was she doing here?

It was anger that grounded him. He straightened up, and used a whoosh of magic to smoothen away every evidence of his near panic attack.

Vincent was already descending into the courtyard. In the relative dimness of the corridor, Kai was in shadow. He watched the three Originals stand to receive the Regent. They blocked most of the dining table, including the sitting guests.

He stepped forward, pushing his rage in front of him like a shield.

"-so sorry for keeping you waiting," Vincent was telling Freya between saccharine air kisses. "It was entirely due to-"

"Me, apparently. Sorry, I'm late. I didn't want to come," Kai said smoothly, flickering his eyes on each offended-looking Mikaelson in turn, so they won't notice the way he was scanning the area, trying to look past them, trying to find …

Vincent heaved a sigh, shifting slightly.

Kai felt her gaze turning to meet his just as he turned to meet hers. Then there was nothing in the world, nothing in Kai's head or heart but the impossible sight of Bonnie Bennett, bare-shouldered and dressed in blue, her green eyes staring at him across a courtyard in New Orleans.

* * *

 ***** _Regium Disciplina - Royal Apprenticeship_

 **A/N** : Thank you all so much for your reviews and feedback and encouragement and enthusiasm over the last chapter! I was so moved & overwhelmed! I wondered if people would even be interested in an update, after the story had been abandoned all summer, re-written twice, and I know the constant flashbacks and jumping doesn't make it an easy read. So to everyone who's stuck to this story for this long, and who keeps encouraging me to write more ... THANK YOU. This chapter is dedicated to you.

If you're having problems posting a review while signed in, you can post an anonymous review but just put your name in the name field so I'll know who it's from.

And thank you too and great KUDOS to the amazing keenan24 who beta-read this (all 32K+ words) and gave me some great advice on the story going forward. You're a super-hero.

P.S. If you didn't get a chance to read the Alaric outttake, it's back in chapter 13 where it belongs.

P.P.S. Yeah, we didn't get the dinner scene in this chapter but - rest assured - it's definitely happening in the next chapter! I don't know if you noticed this but this chapter and the previous one are practically two halves of the same long chapter. 13 is "What Bonnie Did in Mystic Falls" and 14 is "What Kai Did in NOLA & What's Going On In Portland" _at the same time_. Now that Bonkai are in the same place, the plot streamlines.


	15. 15

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

* * *

 _June 2014_

 _New Orleans_

They had gathered together for introductions, the vampire and the mundane flanking the witch like bodyguards as they regarded the late-comers warily.

The Regent was gravely charming. He paused when Freya led him to Bonnie.

"Ms. Bennett, I have heard so much about you," he murmured, almost breathlessly. He bowed over Bonnie's hand. "It is an honor to finally have a face to match the legend."

 _Finally?_ Hadn't the man ever heard of the Internet? Kai glared at the back of Vincent's head. Then he noticed that Freya's grip on the Regent's elbow tightened ever so slightly, and felt marginally better.

Marginally.

The whole situation was a nightmare.

He held himself apart, as Freya Mikaelson rattled off the names of Bonnie and the Mystic Falls's misfits as she led Vincent to each in turn. Or at least, he tried to. Against his will, his head turned to stare into a dark green gaze that was already fixed on him.

A fist seemed to tighten around his heart and in violent retaliation, he pushed his anger forward again.

The green eyes widened in alarm, and she looked away.

It took a moment for him to realize that the others had fallen silent around them. Kai tore his gaze away from Bonnie Bennett with her shoulder-baring blue dress and hair swept into a bun of taunting curls, to see Elijah Mikaelson's speculative eyes flitting between him and the Mystic Falls group.

"Do you know each other…?" the Original asked at last.

"In a manner of speaking," Kai said harshly.

Bonnie stared at him stonily.

Matt Donovan stepped forward, blocking Bonnie slightly out of Kai's view. He glared at Kai, but he spoke civilly enough. "Kai's sister married our former high school teacher, Alaric Saltzman."

"A-ha," Freya Mikaelson said, from where she stood with Vincent. "The Gemini wedding massacre. Of course, we should have remembered that." She gave her brother a look that made it clear that when she said 'we', she really meant 'you'.

Elijah returned her look with such a put-upon expression that Kai might have found amusing under any other circumstances. But he was too busy noticing that the mundane had edged even closer to Bonnie, her vampire friend had done the same, and now she was completely out of Kai's line of sight. Irritation flared within him.

Where were the Salvatores? he wondered. Surely she hadn't come to New Orleans with Inspector Gadget and Miss Humanity-Switcheroo as her only backup? Damon was a tool and Stefan was a ripper but at least they were useful in a fight.

"We're all friends here, aren't we?" Vincent said slowly, his sharp gaze staring from Kai to each of the Mystic Falls contingent, and then back to Kai. The tension in the air couldn't have escaped him. Couldn't have escaped anyone really. And it wasn't just due to the concentration of powerful witches and powerful vampires in the relatively confined space.

Freya also stood at alert, her eyes narrowing as she studied her guests in turn. Elijah's speculative gaze had returned and even Rebekah Mikaelson was watching with avid curiosity.

Kai tried to smoothen his face into something more neutral. "I won't go that far," he said, finally, in reply to Vincent's question since the Mystic Falls gang clearly wasn't answering.

Freya frowned. "I thought that with you as Praetor and their problem with the –"

"We might not be friends but our interests have inclined in the past."

Kai's neck almost cracked as he swiveled it in the direction of the clear voice speaking from somewhere behind Matt Donovan. Caroline stepped away so that Bonnie could step into full view, one hand on her friend's arm; and once again, Kai felt those green eyes regard him. Felt his throat clench in reaction.

"I'm sure we can survive one dinner together." Her voice was as cool as her gaze. The words were a clear challenge, aimed directly at him.

His jaw tightened. "I'm sure."

The tension went up another notch.

Freya was still frowning and when she started to speak Kai half-suspected that she was about to call the whole thing off; but Elijah took his sister by her elbow, and murmured something in her ear. She turned to stare at him, then they both turned to stare at their guests with identical speculative expressions.

Kai didn't like that. He didn't like it all. And he could tell from Bonnie's appalled face as she noticed them too, then her quick glance at and away from him, that she felt the same way.

"Shall we take our seats?" Freya said, making her decision clear.

Bonnie and Caroline were having a quiet discussion. They seemed to come to an agreement because Caroline nodded, reluctantly and started walking to the table. Bonnie walked up to Rebekah Mikaelson and whispered something to her.

The Original nodded, murmured something to her sister, and started leading Bonnie away. The mundane seemed to protest this – his hand reaching for hers – but Bonnie turned, patted his shoulder slightly and shook her head. He let her go, but not without a sad little stare at her retreating back.

Kai watched her go, too. Watched the lines of her body in that blue dress as it crossed the courtyard. Watched the dark band around her wrist that peeked through her gold and sapphire bangles. Watched to see if she would look back.

She didn't.

* * *

Bonnie had prepared for the Mikaelson's demands, their threats, their treachery. She had told herself which lines she would and won't cross to get Elijah on board their plan. Had a Plan B in the form of Matt, for recruiting Rebekah. She had even sent a few emails to Elena – giving nothing away, but laying the groundwork if she'd ever have to resort to what she threatened Stefan with, and use the Cure that now flowed in the doppelganger's bloodstream.

She had prepared for everything and anything that New Orleans would throw at her.

She hadn't prepared for Kai Parker.

She had half-expected Rebekah to lead her to a bathroom as Gothic as the rest of the building. Did the Originals even need to use the bathroom? But thankfully, the conveniences were modern, with gleaming tiles and faucets and roomy enough for Bonnie to hide out until she got some equanimity back.

She splashed her face with cold water, and stared at the mirror.

She had pointedly asked Caroline not to accompany her. Her friend would, with all the good intentions in the world, probe and pry and demand to know how Bonnie was, what she felt seeing him, maybe this was a bad idea, etc. until Bonnie broke down. Not that it would have taken much for that to happen.

At least, she had finally stopped shaking. She had no idea how she had held it together long enough to walk out of that courtyard with a semblance of dignity. When she had realized that that internal alarm hadn't failed her –

– _And why was that, anyway? Why was she so acutely, unerringly aware of his physical presence?_ –

– she had undergone a sort of localized shutdown. Her body had gone into autopilot, going through the motions – smiled and nodded appropriately as she was introduced to Vincent Griffin, spoken sanely because no one had recoiled in shock and horror – and otherwise had given the appearance of someone whose head and heart weren't reacting almost violently to the unexpected guest in their midst.

The last time she had seen him in a suit, it had been battered and bloodied from the massacre at his sister's wedding; and even then, there had been something dangerously appealingly about him; but now… It wasn't the clothes – although he cleaned up nicely. It was the man himself with his hard body, and sharp-jawed face underneath the week-old scruff, radiating waves of energy that apparently resonated with something primal in her.

She remembered the way he had looked at her, his gray eyes hot on her face, until it turned furious. She closed her eyes at once against the sting of tears and splashed even more cold water on her face.

What was he still so angry about? What she had done – tried to do – in Portland was a mistake, and she had apologized for that. Sort of. Kinda. Well, maybe she hadn't actually got round to saying the words … or acting apologetic… but considering the fact that he had hexed her –

– or branded her –

– with no retaliation on her part, surely they had come to their own weird understanding about it?

And he'd been angry even before she had tried to… take Caroline's advice. Angry because she had dared to come to Portland in the first place. Angry that she had been, apparently, _outrageous_ enough to consider that he would do something about the damned heretics that his coven and _he_ in particular were responsible for in the first place!

She was glad she'd been the one to throw the challenge of sitting for dinner in his face. Bonnie Bennett was many things, but she was never going to be a person to run away from a confrontation. No matter how gut-twistingly torturous it was guaranteed to be.

She turned off the tap and grabbed a handful of paper towels violently.

"Don't take it out on the paper towels."

Bonnie glanced through the mirror at Rebekah Mikaelson, standing against the door with her arms folded, and a smirk.

"Don't creep up on me if you don't want your brains fried," Bonnie warned. She pulled out her pocket makeup case and started fixing her face. "I've come a long way since the high school girl you knew all those years ago."

A strange look – a cross between wistfulness and amusement – passed over Rebekah's face. "I don't doubt that, Bonnie _Bennett_. You know, one of the – admittedly numerous – things I regret from Mystic Falls was that you and I never got to be better friends."

Bonnie looked over her mascara brush to peer at the other woman's face, scanning for the mockery that she was sure to find there. But she was a better actress than Bonnie realized because she looked and sounded sincere.

"Ha ha," Bonnie said drolly. "What did we have in common, Rebekah? Unless you count your family pushing me around as our connection?"

"Oh, I dunno… A passion for cheerleading… Awkward relationships with our problematic witch mothers who constantly let us down… The persistent urge to dagger Elijah for being such a self-righteous, hypocritical, manipulative, chauvinist pig…"

The laugh that tore out of Bonnie surprised her.

A tentative grin flickered across Rebekah's face. "Like I said… you and I might actually have been friends."

Bonnie's nose crinkled. "I think you actually killing my best friend might have been a permanent road-block."

"You sure? It wasn't for Matt."

Bonnie rolled her eyes, and snapped her makeup case close. "Yeah, but I couldn't buy what you were selling to him."

Rebekah's eyes squinted in outrage and Bonnie turned around quickly, hot on her toes for the Original's unpredictable temper.

But the blonde deflated with a snicker. "Are you a hundred percent sure about that, Bonnie Bennett?" She smirked again, this time slowly, more deliberately, as her eyes swept Bonnie from her bun down her curves, to her high-heeled shoes and back to her face – or her mouth, to be more specific.

Bonnie froze. "Did you just hit on me?"

Rebekah kept smirking. "Whatever happens in Europe, stays in Europe, right?" She pressed a finger to her mouth. "My lips are sealed."

While Bonnie kept gaping, Rebekah pushed the door open. "Come on. Dinner's getting cold and if you think Elijah is OCD, wait till you see Freya in a mood."

Dinner. With Kai Parker. In the home of the Originals.

The near-serenity of the past few moments quickly deflated, leaving behind a cord of anticipation in Bonnie's stomach, and an awareness that she could feel in her very pores.

She flexed her fingers against her dress, wishing she could do magic. A charm. A hex. Anything to let out this tension.

"Are you OK?" Rebekah asked, almost worriedly.

Bonnie smiled, bright and hard. "Just starving. Let's go."

* * *

While Bonnie and Rebekah Mikaelson were away, Kai almost convinced himself that he could go through this evening without losing his mind.

As long as one wasn't thinking that there was a real chance they were being served human flesh, the food was exquisite. The company was scintillating – the Mikaelsons were deviously intelligent and being around them always kept his wits sharp. For some reason, Freya and Elijah were avoiding any mention of the Ghiaccis lounging in their dungeon. Kai also didn't care to bring up that discussion near hearing distance of the Mystic Falls' crew, but it was amusing to keep trying, and keep watching the Mikaelsons deftly deflect his attempts. Vincent Griffin was wearing his Professor cap and holding a sort of mini-court at the other end of the table, regaling Caroline Forbes and the mundane with his usual grave charm.

"Will Stefan Salvatore be joining you tomorrow?" Freya asked Caroline at some time.

Kai's ears pricked at that.

"No. The Salvatores are keeping an eye on things back at home." Caroline looked at Mikaelson Head suspiciously.

So the Brother Act duo were not part of the Mystic Falls delegation? Interesting…

"You've met Stefan?" Caroline asked.

"Briefly."

Huh. That was cryptic even for Freya.

"When–"

"Praetor, you've had dealings with the Salvatore brothers, haven't you?" Elijah asked.

Kai resisted the urge to bristle. The other man's insistence on Kai's title should have been taken as a sign of respect but Kai knew it was meant as the opposite.

"Quite sure you heard it said my coven and the Mystic Falls Founders' Council have worked together in the past, _Elijah_."

"And now?" Freya pried, switching her scrutiny from Caroline to Kai. "Are you working together now?"

Kai considered his answer as he cut into a suspicious-looking slice of steak. He could feel Matt Donovan's eyes on him. The mundane cop must have heard the question, and was waiting to hear Kai's answer and probably, pounce on it. Kai had caught a few glances from that corner. Half-wary, half-furious. Someone was still nursing a grudge over the _Memorian_ spell of a year ago.

"Now, that's an interesting question," Kai started. Then he stopped, waited for a heartbeat. "Let's put a pin on that, with the rest of our other current unmentionables, shall we?"

He stuffed his mouth and chewed with vigor. It tasted like beef, thankfully.

The cop scowled. Elijah and Freya exchanged indecipherable looks.

Then Elijah raised his head. He and Kai got to their feet at the same time, followed soon by the other men.

"Bonnie. Rebekah," Elijah said to the two who had just stepped into the yard.

Kai had, of course, felt her approaching the courtyard before she was even in view. A wave of magical awareness had seemed to throb in him when she was near. As her orangey scent – that reminded him of that aborted dinner and her pressed between him and his front door – filled his nostrils, he told himself he won't gawk at her. That he'd only spare a perfunctory glimpse to nod his acknowledgement, and then keep his eyes steadfastly away.

He glanced her way – and he couldn't look away. In the dim courtyard light, everything about her glowed – the streaks of red in her dark hair, the smooth skin of her shoulders, her arms, her legs. Even her smile, as she silently acknowledged the other guests, glowed. She grinned up at the steward that pulled out her chair, at the mundane on the other side of the table, even at Freya by her right. But not once did her eyes even flicker in Kai's direction. Quite a feat, considering that she was – as his luck dictated, of course – seated directly across him.

Freya told her to try the soup and she acquiesced with a smile. She smiled her thanks to the waitstaff – and at this point, the easy way she gave smiles to everyone but him was nothing short of deliberately spiteful – then took a spoonful. It was only as she was about to mouth a spoonful, that she glanced at him.

Caught staring, he couldn't look away. Her eyes widened; but she lifted her chin, holding his gaze as she swallowed her soup, her red lips smacking together with a hum of appreciation.

He tore his eyes back to his own food, and tried to quieten the sudden roar of blood rushing through him, pooling in his groin.

 _Damn her_ , he thought furiously, as he started busily cutting the steak into frustrated little slices.

"Miss. Bennett, now that I remember," said Elijah Mikaelson suddenly in a way that made Kai tense, "you freed the Gemini Praetor from his Prison World?"

Kai looked up and sure enough, that look of speculation was back in the Original's face.

Bonnie's spoon, half-way to her mouth, paused. It was a flicker; in the next moment, she had finished the motion and was making a show of swallowing thoughtfully. But Kai had seen it – her flinch.

One year later, and the memory of that Prison World still so haunted Bonnie that Elijah Mikaelson's faux-innocent comment triggered her pain. Kai swallowed against the tightness in his throat.

"That's not exactly what happened." It was Matt Donovan that replied Elijah, his cop voice on. "You need to compel yourselves better spies."

Kai felt a rush of gratitude towards the man.

"So the rumors that when the Other Side collapsed, you, as its Anchor, moved on to his Prison World, are not correct?" Elijah probed. "You are a witch again, are you not?"

 _You are walking a very fine line, ally mine._ Kai violently stabbed at his plate, and pondered how best he could kill the Original with minimal repercussions on his hard-won treaties and the general vampire population.

Matt started speaking but Bonnie cut him off. "Yes, I am." She slanted a glance at Kai, then turned to Elijah. "Something that you obviously knew before you invited me here."

It was Elijah's turn to glance at Kai. He cleared his throat. "Perhaps, we can talk more after dinner."

"I don't know, Elijah," Bonnie said coolly. "You seem pretty set to talk now. Let's just have it out, shall we?"

If the look on the Original's face was anything to go by, he had neither expected nor wanted that reaction. "Perhaps, after dinner, Miss. Bennett," he said, disgruntled.

Kai didn't even bother to hide his snigger as he downed some more steak.

"Is there anything we _can_ talk about?" Rebekah sounded exasperated.

"I agree. As much as I love hearing my own voice," Vincent said, "it would be nice for all of us to share in the conversation."

Freya glanced at him. "Debatable," she said with a tiny smile, "but I believe this is something that some of us are unaware of: At the start of this month, the Augustine Society has officially been revived."

Someone – Kai suspected the mundane – dropped their cutlery on their plate with a loud clatter.

The Mystic Falls trio exchanged appalled glances as everyone else on the table observed them keenly. Of course, this would be news to them. They were always too preoccupied in their bubble of a town to keep up with the dealings of the rest of the supernatural world. Even though they really ought to have put two and two together and made the connection between the change of ownership of the Whitmore College and the revival of the Society.

"Augustine?" Matt Donovan asked. "I thought that they were…"

"… brutally murdered by some of their own vampire guinea pigs?" Kai said, smoothly, even as he wondered to himself why he was bothering to shield Damon Salvatore. Then he saw Bonnie's shoulder visibly relax with relief, and he got his answer. "Apparently, they are staging a comeback. But I think the Head of this House might be able to tell us more about them."

Freya cleared her throat. "The Regent and I have been engaged in negotiations with representatives from the Society. After several discussions, we finally agreed to host their Inauguration Ceremony here in New Orleans." She ignored Kai's sharp glare. "This city is a boiling pot of the supernatural community and several factions will be able to attend. It will give us all an opportunity to express concerns and past grievances with the Society, and hopefully move past them to discuss future mutual prospects."

Kai opened his mouth to tell her exactly what his _concerns_ were – when Caroline Forbes's strained voice spoke over him. "We are talking about the same Augustine Society that kidnap vampires to experiment on? To _torture_?"

"Obviously, their mandate has changed. All my siblings are vampires. I could hardly wish to associate with a society that tortured my blood."

"How can you be sure of that?" Caroline insisted.

Freya, who was about to bite into her food, paused mid-eating, clearly taken aback by Caroline's questioning. "By the means at my disposal," she said as if that should have been obvious.

"Which are?"

Freya stared harder. "Means that I am obviously unable to explain in any detail to… a person without the appropriate _disciplina_."

Bonnie slanted her narrowed eyes at the Mikaelson's Head.

"Believe it or not, I'm a lot smarter than your research told you." Caroline was not backing down and Kai looked at the blonde vampire that he had dismissed in the past with newfound respect. "And all I'm hearing now is that you have no way of knowing anything about these people that you're about to get into bed with."

The Mikaelson Head regarded Caroline Forbes as if she couldn't decide between being affronted or amused by her.

"The plan," said Vincent kindly, "is to evoke a similar treaty with the Augustine as the one currently existing between the Nine Covens, the Crescent Pack, the Seelie Court, the Human Faction, the Mikaelsons and finally, the Gemini Coven." At the look of surprise from the Mystic Falls crew, he elaborated. "Sometime last year, our various supernatural factions came to an understanding. In the end, we are all creatures of the Night World. As Mr. Parker reminded us when he proposed the treaty, we have more in common, than we have differences; and we achieve our goals faster as allies, than as foes."

Kai shifted his gaze from Elijah to the woman next to him, and was not surprised to see her already looking at him. Her eyes were shadowed, but he could spy the glint of speculation – and was that admiration? – in them.

This time, she was the one who broke their gaze. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but she looked like she was flushing.

He felt momentarily light-headed.

Caroline had not let up. "Last I heard the Augustine were a bunch of _human_ academics, not supernaturals."

"The Human Faction of New Orleans is also recognized in our treaty. Theoretically speaking, every mundane has a drop of magic in them," Vincent Griffin, _warlock_ academic declared. "You literally cannot exist in this world without magic."

"With all due respect, Regent," Caroline said in a tone warning that what would come next would be very far from respectful –

"What my friend means," Bonnie said quietly, her clear voice cutting through the heated discussion, and Kai's sternum, "is that our past experiences with the Augustine have been horrific. They didn't just hurt vampire friends of ours. They hurt _humans_ as a means to an end. They were a walking-talking morality lesson that not all monsters look like monsters."

"If you're referring the late Dr. Wes Maxfield," Vincent said, gravely, "no one is arguing that. But he was an eccentric and an anomaly. The Society was formed to protect mundanes from the supernatural, not use them as collateral damage. And now the Society's mandate is to protect mundanes _with_ the supernatural. Part of our negotiations included full disclosures of all their methods, and full approvals of said methods in exchange for supplying them with _voluntary_ subjects. Their days of kidnapping and torturing people are over."

"OK. What the heck does _voluntary_ even mean–"

"Hey, think about it, Care," Matt Donovan interjected quickly. "The Society is making a comeback whether you like it or not. They existed for hundreds of years before in secrecy. There's nothing stopping them from doing that again. That they're trying for transparency is a good thing. The way I see it, this arrangement gives you some oversight and you get to share whatever new knowledge their research digs up."

"Contrary to popular opinion, being supernatural doesn't mean being medieval," Kai said mildly. "Any reputable coven, or faerie court, or even some of the older lycan clans in Europe and Asia have their share of archivers and researchers."

Matt frowned at him. "Few more eyes never hurt."

"Depends on whose eyes and what they want to see. A way to help sentiency in general? Or just another way for mundanes to get more power?"

"What is wrong with levelling the playing field? You guys have _magic_ , literal _magic_. And super-speed and super-strength and can heal in seconds. Mundanes have nothing. Doesn't that strike you as a bit unfair?"

"Because the most advanced mundane societies are bastions of fairness and equality?"

"Witch covens protect mundanes," Vincent said gently. "We keep the balance."

"In theory, yes," Matt declared. "My reality has always been somewhat different."

He didn't notice the hurt look that his _witch_ friend threw at him. The way her face twisted; her eyes widened; before she stared down at her plate with slumped shoulders.

Kai did. Until then, he had engaged the mundane out of perverse boredom – like putting obstacles in front of an ant, mischief without malice. Now he felt like squashing that ant with his finger. He wanted to lean over and bash Matt Donovan's head into his soup bowl.

" _Your_ reality?" Kai derided, opting to verbally, not physically injure Bonnie's mundane BFF. "You have _chosen_ to surround yourself with the same supernaturals that you're condemning. Doesn't that strike you as, oh I don't know, a tad bit hypocritical?"

"You have no-"

"Matt…" Caroline said.

He ignored her, his bitter gaze locked on Kai. "Don't even go there. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't I? Explain it to me then. Explain what you are even doing here. What exactly as a mundane do you bring to this table besides… I dunno… your badge, and your Glock? That is the sum total, isn't it, of the mundane heritage – crooked politics and lead pellets?"

The mundane was looking at Kai as if he won't mind pulling out that gun right now. "Mundanes bring far more than that to the table. But I guess you won't know anything about what's been happening in the past two decades, would you, Mr. 1994?"

Kai rolled his eyes. Pathetic comeback. He was almost embarrassed for the guy.

"Also … _their_ heritage?" Donovan continued. "You're a witch, not some mer-creature living under the sea. It's as much your heritage as it is ours."

"By that reasoning, our heritage is equally yours," Kai countered, "but we're not the ones who contort elaborate explanations for things we don't understand because we lack the humility to exist in a reality that we're disadvantaged in?"

Donovan's face went as red as the blood-spiked wine in the vampires' cups. "Mundanes are _not_ disadvantaged!"

"No, you're just dinner here on any other day."

The rest of the table, tense but silently watchful of this conversation, now seemed to wince as one.

"Why you-" Donovan was half out of his chair when Vincent clasped a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Sit," the Regent said firmly.

"Matt, please," Rebekah said quietly, putting a hand over his own.

"Come on, Matt," Caroline added.

Kai shrugged, and reached for the bowl of potatoes. He ignored Vincent's disapproval, and the stink-eyes coming from the two blonde vampires.

What Kai couldn't ignore was Bonnie's disappointed face staring at him as she made it damn obvious on whose side she was.

Something dark and ugly twisted inside him and he looked away.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"Perhaps someone else could suggest a topic of conversation," Freya said as she gestured to Elijah to pass her a slice of fruit cake.

Kai perked up that, and helped himself to some as well.

"Delicious, Freya," he said honestly, between swallows. "Did you have the baker compelled to following the exact recipe or just compelled to make the best cake possible?"

She gave him a frosty glare. "No one was compelled."

"Hear that mundane?"

Bonnie inhaled angrily.

"I'd really love to know," Rebekah said, in a shrill voice before someone exploded, "about high school? Where did everyone end up?"

"The Regent of the Nine Covens, the Praetor of the Gemini Coven and the Bennett Witch are not interested in a 'Where Are My Cheerleaders Now?' run-down, Rebekah," Elijah said at once.

"Come now," the Regent said, frowning at Elijah, before turning to his sister with a more genial expression. "We're all friends here and Rebekah wants to hear about the ones she made in Virginia."

Finally, Kai felt the weight of Bonnie's disapproval lift from his direction, as she turned to Rebekah with an overly-bright smile. "Penny, remember her, the one that always lost her pompoms? She joined the Academy with Matt and Tyler."

"What?" Rebekah shrieked. "Really?" She turned to Donovan for confirmation.

It was such an obvious ploy but of course, the mundane took the bait, letting himself be led out of the confrontation.

Coward.

The drivel about cheerleaders and cadets and pom-poms passed over Kai's head. None of the names that were mentioned had been important enough for Bonnie to mention during their stint in 1994, so Kai had no knowledge of them. Still slightly affronted at the topic, Elijah contributed with a few jibes that were obviously meant to deflate his sister. But the other three rallied around her, and she glared triumphantly at him in return. Meanwhile, Vincent gamely participated; causing Freya, who was completely out of her depth, to smile at him gratefully.

The whole situation was more entertaining than an episode of the Kardashians and between it and the delicious fruit cake, Kai might have been almost happy. If not for the cold presence of the woman across from him.

She had become withdrawn as the dinner lengthened. Although she was still engaged in the conversation – that had now shifted from cheerleaders to college life of which, Vincent, who was an actual college professor, dominated the discussion – her contributions were becoming shorter and longer apart. She barely touched her food, nursing the same one glass of wine all through the dinner. Smart girl, Kai thought; like him, she wanted to keep a straight head in this company.

She was also smart enough to keep steadily looking away from him, which made her far smarter than himself.

But what was he supposed to do? She was just _there_. Impossibly, incredulously there. If he leaned forward, one arm stretched, his hand could cover her delicate fingers where they held the stem of her glass. Could curl them open, brush his rings against his own brand on her wrist, slip into the hollow of her palm. He already knew how it would feel – soft, but scarred with knife cuts that she had suffered before she had learnt to heal herself properly.

He knew how those scars felt against his skin.

He swallowed hard, and stared down at his empty plate. The sugar rush or whatever it was that had got into his head a while ago was dissipating. Despite all that he had stuffed himself with, he felt hollow. Bereft.

"Was engaging the mundane really necessary?" Freya whispered.

Kai pushed his brooding aside long enough to scowl at her. "Blame it on the a-a-alcohol."

The reference went over her head. " _Are_ you intoxicated? You've barely had two glasses."

"Perhaps I _would_ be if you had better wine." He grumbled.

She wasn't listening. Her eyes were on her sister, who had just burst into giggles. Freya pursed her lips. "My apologies for the present conversation. Without my influence, I am afraid that my sister has grown rather… frivolous."

"I never understood why vampires went to high school," Kai mused. "College, I get, what with the drinking and the parties with free booze… but high school? That's just hell. Is it some sort of vampire flagellation thing?"

Freya seemed to consider his rambling, then opted to dismiss it. "Well, be that as it may…" She cleared her throat. "Concerning the topic of the… Society… there is something I would ask of you."

* * *

The on-going conversation was rather interesting. Bonnie was surprised to realize that Vincent Griffin was a college professor, but then on reflection, it made sense considering how easily the man could enrapture an audience. It was amusing, because he had originally said he didn't want to do all the talking, but that was what ended up happening as he gave an interesting monologue of a conference paper he'd given while the others listened, raptured. Bonnie wished she could be a part of it.

Instead, she concentrated on sipping her wine as slowly as possible, letting the alcohol burn a trickle down her throat, while she surreptitiously watched _him_ murmuring with Freya Mikaelson.

A few moments ago, he had been looking at her, his hard gaze all but burning two holes through her face. Then the Mikaelson's newest – or was it oldest? – member had called his attention and now they were urgently discussing something. Bonnie strained her ears to hear, and she caught the words – "accord" and "bloodline". None of it made any sense to her.

 _What the heck is Kai Parker doing in NOLA?_

Nothing to do with her, if that first tense three-way conversation between Bonnie, Elijah and _him_ had been anything to go by. That had convinced her more than Elijah's and Freya's apparent surprise when _he_ first showed up with the New Orleans' Regent. She didn't trust the Originals any more than she could throw them and wouldn't have put it past Elijah to set up this 'coincidence' on purpose. But it was clear from the conversation that Elijah didn't want – or wasn't ready – for whatever dealings he had with the two parties to merge.

Even now, Bonnie was aware of a kind of tension between her and Elijah. Was the tension borne from their dealings in the past? Or was it from anticipating their dealings in the near future? Bonnie didn't know. It also didn't escape her how now, as Freya monopolized Kai, Elijah seemed to be studying Bonnie's face intently. He had done that several times during the dinner – switched gazes from each of them, watching for –

What?

Bonnie was almost afraid to find out. Lord knew what she had already revealed in those few moments of shock when Kai's presence had blind-sided her.

She had to be more on her guard. The last thing she needed was to show _any_ vulnerability in this house, before these people.

Whatever _he_ was doing here, his timing couldn't have been worse.

Freya Mikaelson said something that made him smile a little. Barely a proper grin, just a curl of the corner of his lip. It was hard to see beneath a shave that was almost a week late, but it was there. Bonnie put down her glass, knowing that she needed to make it last the night, and watched them. Freya Mikaelson was beautiful, with the sharp features and confidence of a woman in her early thirties. And no woman with eyes would miss how good _he_ looked in that suit. Nor fail to notice – or daydream about – the almost hypnotic way he gestured with his ringed-fingers. Nor want to run her fingers through that zig-zag streak of white running from his crown to his nape.

With a deliberate effort, she pulled her gaze away.

"A summer in Europe is more than just bar-hopping and bungee jumping," Vincent was saying.

"It wasn't," Caroline interjected. "At least not for all of us…" Her voice turned mischievous. "Elena studied a new language and changed schools. I got some art into me. Went to exhibitions. Visited museums, churches… Bonnie, on the other hand…"

"… I got some art too," Bonnie cut in, throwing her friend a stink-eye.

Caroline's eyes widened innocently. "That's what I was about to say!"

"I went along with you to a lot of those exhibitions. I also visited some of the old European covens and learnt some new magic."

"Did you make it to Northern Germany by any chance?" Vincent asked. When the girls nodded, his eyes brightened. "You must have visited the Schleswig Cathedral then? Noticed that controversial fresco?"

Bonnie was about to shake her head no, when she noticed Caroline nodding. Huh. When Vincent looked at her expectantly, she found herself floundering. To make matter worse, she realized from the silence on her left, that even Freya's side conversation had paused, anticipating her answer.

Was this a trick question? What was she supposed to have noticed about the fresco? Bonnie barely had any memory of visiting the cathedral. She supposed she must have – Elena and Caroline dragged her to a lot of places. And before she had ditched them for Freya and Nora, the two witches had also been part of the group of five. But Bonnie must have lost that memory between nights of bar-crawling and a revolving doorway of European men.

She _had_ kept a journal – at first Elena's, then Nora's insistence – but how was she supposed to just remember off the top of her head?

"We went to so many places…" Caroline said, to Bonnie's immense relief.

"But Ms. Bennett would remember the Cathedral." Freya Mikaelson spoke up, making Bonnie's heart quail. "I mean, I would for obvious reasons, but any witch would."

"Well… obviously…" Bonnie said.

Across from her, she heard a soft snigger. When she threw him a dirty glance, he was staring innocently at the sky.

"Don't be so vain, Freya," Rebekah drawled. "Just because you're named after the goddess _Freyja_ doesn't mean you're her incarnation. The drawing of her riding on a horse has as much to do with you as hymn of my Biblical namesake has to do with me. This will be something of a shock to you, dear sister, but you are not really a goddess, no matter how much you demand our worship."

"Rebekah-" Elijah said sternly as Freya inhaled sharply.

Their youngest just rounded her eyes innocently, and blithely changed the conversation. "Forget boring museums and churches. You've seen one faded drawing on a wall and you've seen them all. Can we talk about the shops? Which countries had better shoes?"

Vincent smiled. "You can buy shoes anywhere, Rebekah. But no matter how many lifetimes you've lived, you only get to experience something for the first time. Mr. Donovan, you did not follow your friends to Europe?"

"It was a girls' only thing," Matt replied. "But I have been to Europe before," He smiled at Rebekah who batted her lashes at him.

As the conversation moved on past her, Bonnie eyed Rebekah Mikaelson. The blonde Original chatted easily with Vincent and the others, completely oblivious to the fact that she had saved Bonnie from an embarrassing question. Or was she? Really oblivious? If Bonnie didn't know better, she'd have sworn that Rebekah had acted deliberately.

First, her strangely warm welcome. Then the weird tête-à-tête in the bathroom. And now this rescue? One was a coincidence, two was a pattern and three was definitely another mystery that Bonnie needed to solve.

She sighed and watched her friends laugh at something the Regent said. Unlike her, who was too acutely aware of the men in this place that she had checkered history with – Elijah Mikaelson and _him_ – they were obviously having a great time. Even Matt had gotten over whatever had brought him so close to a declaration of war a few moments ago. Bonnie glared at him as he laughed now. Nice to see how quickly he had recovered now that Rebekah was throwing her full charm at him. He did remember _she_ was a vampire, didn't he?

' _My reality has been quite different?_ ' What _did_ that mean? He had suffered losses – but so had Bonnie; so had Caroline; so had everyone else in their group. Empirically speaking, he'd probably lost the least. Everyone had lost a family member but Matt Donovan was the only non-orphan in their group. Did he ever consider that? What the heck had got into him to say the things he did? Was it really just dislike of their present company or was there something more deep-seated about this resentment?

And regarding the present company that Matt hated… what the heck had _he_ meant going after Matt that way? There was no way he could have expected Matt to ignore his barbs about mundanes. Even more aggravating was that Bonnie _did_ share his concerns about the Augustine Society. She had actually been on his side. Caroline, too. But that was because the Society had proved themselves to be evil – not because they were mundanes. He and Matt had turned the topic into a mundane vs. supernatural debate unnecessarily; and Bonnie seriously doubted if Mr. Malachai 'I was a technical mundane for the first 40 years of my life' Parker even believed half of the elitist garbage he had spewed. Bonnie was disappointed in him – then disappointed in herself that she held him in enough regard to be let down by him.

Her fingers tightened around the table cloth, and she eyed Kai Parker, head bent again in conversation with Freya Mikaelson, with all the spite she held in her heart.

He must have sensed her looking at him, because he raised his head. Stormy grey eyes held hers, pinning her, drawing her in. She felt like if she was drowning in his gaze, sinking right into the bottom…

"April Young is starting at Whitmore this Fall, right?"

Rebekah Mikaelson's clear voice cut through the haze that had fallen over Bonnie, jerking her back to reality with a rude abruptness.

Matt was already looking her way, his blue eyes wide with alarm. Caroline seemed to have dropped a utensil, the clatter loud on her plate. Silence fell over the table, as the startled reaction of the Mystic Falls's visitors caught on with the rest of the gathering.

Rebekah looked from one to the other, her eyebrows raised.

Caroline cleared her throat. "Y-you remember April Young?" she asked weakly.

"Remember?" Rebekah laughed. "We've been IMing and Facetiming since I left Virginia." At the stares that followed, her voice raised defensively. "What? I wasn't bloody hurting her. She's my friend. The only person there who was ever nice to me."

Matt choked.

Rebekah rolled her eyes. "The only one of two people."

There was another terse moment, another quick switch of gazes between the three from Virginia. Bonnie was conscious of Kai's eyes boring harder than usual into her face, but for once, it didn't distract her.

Rebekah was beginning to look upset. "What? What is it?"

Bonnie and Caroline stared at Matt. He sighed.

"When last did you hear from April, Becks?" he asked gently.

"A month ago. No. Two months ago. She was getting ready for homecoming and wanted my opinion on her dress… I saw her pictures on Facebook but since then… I don't think she's even updated…" She looked from one to the other, with increasing upset. "Did something happen to her?"

Matt cleared his throat. "Becks…"

She gripped his arm. He flinched. "I demand that you tell me at once!"

"She's dead," he said quietly.

Tears filled the Original's eyes, rolled down her cheeks. She didn't bother wiping them off. "No."

Bonnie felt her own throat constrict.

"Yes. She was …" Matt looked at Bonnie; and she nodded at once. Rebekah deserved the truth. "She was murdered by the heretics in our town. She and her boyfriend, Ronnie Marten. They were walking home from a football game. They were just… at the wrong place at the wrong time…" His voice trailed off bitterly, and Bonnie remembered their working theory about the heretics' agenda.

Window dressing.

She fought back a wave of nausea.

"The heretics… from the Gemini coven." Rebekah's blue eyes turned hard. Her head swiveled slowly to…

Bonnie blinked; and the Original was gone.

"Your coven. Your responsibility."

Moving faster than the eye could see, the blonde immortal had left her seat and was now standing behind the Praetor's. Her hand was wrapped around his throat.

The table seemed to ripple with shock.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't rip your head out of your body?"

* * *

Under other circumstances, this might have been amusing – scintillating even. 18 years spent in one's personal prison world where he constantly chased death had all but erased his sense of mortality. When he returned, he had had to remember to be conscious of it – remember that he couldn't set himself on fire, step off the top of a skyscraper or any of the other perks of immortality that the prison world had given him. Then just as he was getting the hang of that, he had undergone his full _Redimio1_ as Praetor. While not making him completely invincible, it certainly made it harder for him to die.

At least, it should, but for one small unorthodox act on his part.

"They don't call this place the Abattoir for nothing," he mused, trying for a smile as he looked up at the livid demon face, all fangs and red eyes, that snarled upside-down at him.

"Rebekah, sit," Freya said sharply.

"We do not eat our dinner guests," Elijah added mildly. "Regardless of how offensive we find them."

"She was my friend," his sister yelled, sobbed. Tears, snot and spit were falling from her face. Some of it landed on Kai's.

His stomach churned.

"Rebekah," Vincent said gently. "This is pointless."

"I said _sit_!" Freya shouted.

"I don't care about your stupid treaties!" Rebekah cried. "You're just as bad as Klaus. Wanting to control everyone and everything to suit _your_ own interests. Not mine. Never mine." She sobbed harder, and more stuff fell from her face. "She might have been just a _mundane_ but she was my friend and _they_ were his responsibility; and since no one's ready to explain why he shouldn't pay for her death then I will…" Momentarily, he felt her nails break his skin.

Freya stretched her arm and power – a heartbeat too late.

A rush of energy, familiar and elemental had whooshed over Kai's head at the same time that his own defensive magic kicked in, reacting before he had even made the conscious decision to port. The noose-like grip on his neck vanished, as well as his chair, and the table before him, and the next moment, he was on his feet at the other side of the courtyard, his back to the dinner.

He whirled around to see two things – Bonnie Bennett on her feet, her arms stretched out, her fingers splayed out and pushing power that sent ricochets through every bone in his body –

– and Rebekah Mikaelson, screaming with her hands on her head as she crashed into a column at the other side of the yard.

The floors above it rumbled, stones crumbling. Then a floor was collapsing on top of the Original, rubble flying whichever way as it buried her.

* * *

 _July 2013_

 _Schleswig, Germany_

" _And this is the famous image of Freya, riding on a cat. The Norse goddess is still widely worshipped today. Her realm Fólkvangr is believed to be where veterans go after their deaths, if they are lucky. If they are not, they go on to Valhalla where they join the Einherjar to prepare for the Ragnarök, the battle to end all battles."_

"English please," Bonnie griped as she flipped through her translation guide, trying desperately to keep up with the tour guide's rapid drone.

"Americans," Nora scoffed beside her and shoved the pamphlet in front of Bonnie's face. Bonnie blinked at the list of relevant translations listed clearly. Then she snatched it from the other girl.

"You're welcome," Nora sing-sang.

"Don't hold your breath," Bonnie grumbled. It was hers and Freya's fault that Bonnie had rolled out of bed with a splitting hangover-induced headache, and no time to brew a suitable potion. She'd have skipped today's tour completely if she wasn't already skating on thin ice with Caroline and Elena.

She eyed the other girl's glowing dark skin and light eyes with resentment. "How come we both went bar-hopping last night but I feel like shit and you look like you went to bed at 10?"

"My pure heart?"

Despite herself, Bonnie giggled. Then quickly stifled it when one of two old men in front of her glared at her over his shoulder.

Despite the high walls, and large windows of the Cathedral, she felt stifling hot. Or maybe it was just the oppressive state of being in a holy place when she felt far from the state of grace. Or it could just be the fugly clothes Elena and Caroline had insisted on her wearing for this tour.

She supposed the painted murals, intricate marble pillars, rich tapestries, and stained glass images of saints made this place a tourist hot spot. And Nora had invited herself and Freya along because she insisted that this place had pagan history as well, and was important to the covens in the region.

But Bonnie wished they could have just left her in the hotel to sleep.

"Talking about pure hearts," Freya said as she walked up to them, completely oblivious to the frowns of disapproval at her late-coming. "I thought this was a Church. Are those yonder titties?"

Bonnie peered hard at the mural in question. The wall was too far away from where the girls lingered at the back of the crowd, and her headache wasn't helping her focus. She shrugged. "I'm sure yours are far better, Freya."

Freya flipped her long curls over her bare shoulders – a blatant violation of the recommended dress code for the venue. "That goes without saying. But I came here expecting to see the titties of a _goddess_. Who just happens to be named after me. I demand my money back. And the goddess renamed."

Nora snickered, causing both old men in front of them to throw them a baleful gaze.

"Sorry," Bonnie whispered, embarrassed.

Freya snorted. "Sorry, grumpies," she said in a whisper loud enough for them to glare at her. She threw them a nasty smile that had them scuttling away to the rest of the group. "Thank goodness. Why didn't they go up front from the start? Hang out with the rest of the do-gooders?" She lifted her chin in that general direction. "Do Caroline and Elena even know that school's out for the summer?"

Bonnie glanced at her friends. While Elena's face was upturned, all but drinking in every word from the tour guide's mouth, Caroline was looking at Bonnie and the other two girls, glaring.

"Careful, Blondie," Freya murmured, "you keep making that face and if the wind changes, you're going to be stuck with it."

Caroline's gaze went from disapproving to pissed off.

"You remember she's a vampire? She can hear you, you know," Bonnie cautioned.

"So?"

The tour guide seemed to have finished his lecture, and to Bonnie's immense relief, the group seemed about to move on. The sooner they were done, the sooner she could go back to her hotel room and sleep off the day. When a familiar voice piped up.

"Does the Georgian Calendar predict when the _Ragnarök_ will occur?"

The tour guide all but puffed at Elena's question, his eyes shining as he launched into a second lecture.

The three stragglers bit back a collective groan. Heck, even Caroline gave Elena the side-eye.

"Your friend is very… keen," Nora said, diplomatically.

"She's been on this kick since we got here," Bonnie muttered. "This whole Church expedition was her idea. When she's not learning some weird language, she's into this. If I didn't know better, I'd swear she's found religion."

Freya glared at the side of Elena's head. "Or maybe the bitch just needs to be the center of attention everywhere she goes?"

"Hey," Bonnie snapped. She and her friends had their differences but there was a line. "Take that back. Elena's never done anything to you."

Freya looked like if it would physically hurt herself to show any kind of remorse. Instead she flipped her hair and stayed silent.

"Someone skipped her morning brew," Nora said quietly, shifting unobtrusively until she stood between the two girls. She put her hand on Bonnie's shoulder, placatingly, then turned to Freya. "Freya…"

Freya shied away. "Dirty sinners like me don't feel comfortable in places like this. You can find me at the nearest pub."

* * *

 _June 2014_

Kai dunked his head under the running tap for a good ten minutes before he was satisfied that he had got most of the stickiness out.

When he was done, he stared at his wet face, and told himself to calm down. _So she rushed to save me from an Original. That should just about fill the Bonnie Bennett To the Rescue quota for the day. Double points for ex-enemies and sociopaths._

He nearly ripped off the paper towel from its holder to wipe his face. When he stepped outside the conveniences, he asked one of the perpetually hovering stewards for a towel for his hair.

He was still drying it when he found his way to the drawing room.

"–think I shall someday host a dinner that doesn't end in disaster?" Freya was musing, sounding resigned. She was perched on the arm of Vincent's chair.

Vincent chuckled. "Not a chance."

She laughed, and bent her head down just as he lifted his up for them to share a deep kiss.

The ache in Kai's chest intensified at the sight of them. He relieved it by fake-gagging.

The two broke off and shared a look of amusement before Freya stood up to meet him. "Praetor, I sincerely regret Rebekah's behavior. Accept my apologies, and sincere gratitude for your help with the disaster. Rebekah is in her room now, under extreme confinement. It was very considerate of you to recover her. Elijah and I had every intention of helping but we were caught unawares."

Elijah had grabbed his sister and vampire-fled before the debris started flying. Caroline Forbes had done the same with her friends. That left Kai and Vincent to magically contain the wreckage to the affected wing, so that the entire building was not pulled down. After that, they had unearthed the pile of rubble that buried Rebekah Mikaelson. Kai would have been happy to leave her underneath it all, but his guilt couldn't let him be. He had satisfied himself with grumbling every step of the way as he worked alongside Vincent.

Kai glanced at Elijah, who had been standing all this while at the far side of the room, clearly trying to ignore the love birds. "We could have used some of your muscle back there."

Elijah flicked the hems of his sleeves, saying without words what he thought about soiling his expensive suit to dig out his flesh and blood; but all he said was, "And someone needed to pacify our guests."

"What are Vincent and I, then? Chopped liver?" Kai turned around the drawing room. The artificial fireplace was lit, and the armchairs were carefully arranged around it. Above the fireplace hung a Renaissance-style painting of a crowded landscape. But other than the furniture, it was empty except the four of them. "Where are they anyway?"

Bonnie was still here; he could feel her presence, throbbing nearby. Her recently spiked magic hadn't abated. It was almost as if tendrils of it were reaching out for him.

Without waiting for an invitation, he walked to the decanter on a nearby table, and poured himself a shot with shaky hands.

"In some other room like this. Waiting for me," Elijah replied. "I reassured them that you and Vincent were more than capable of handling the situation. Ms. Bennett was quite… concerned about you two. Should I inform her that you are in good health?"

Kai took a gulp of his drink, feeling the burn down his throat.

It had been _her_ magic that had attacked Rebekah, just before he did his vanishing trick. He had recognized it before he had seen her on her feet. It had all been over in moments, but the charge of adrenaline he had had as her magic spiked, was still gushing through his blood. It was a good thing that her friend had spirited her out of that place. Kai had no idea how he'd react if she was still grabbing distance from him now.

He took another gulp. Then downed the entire glass.

"Praetor?" Elijah probed.

Kai slammed the empty glass down. "What the fuck are you up to, Mikaelson?" he snarled. "What are _they_ doing here?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Unless you're going to flat out lie to me that they're not here about the heretics in Mystic Falls, then it _does_ concern me. And I have your sister's claw marks on my neck as proof."

The two older Mikaelsons grimaced in unison.

"Rebekah is rather … emotional," Freya admitted.

"Emotional?" Kai echoed, disbelievingly.

"The downsides of an eternal adolescence. I assure you that my sister will be brought to line. In the meanwhile, we three have matters of business to discuss." She flicked a glance at Elijah. "You should see to the party from Virginia."

Elijah gave his sister a stiff smile, nodded in turn at Vincent and Kai, and took his dismissal as graciously as he could. Vincent shut the door behind the Original.

Kai turned to Freya. "What do you want with B… the Mystic Falls townies?"

He didn't miss the cryptic glance that she and Vincent shared.

"That is between my brother and them. We have our own business to discuss, Kai," Freya said mildly as she poured sage into a glance.

Distracted, Kai stared. "Privacy spell? In your own home?"

"When you live with vampires, family or no, you place a premium on confidentiality." Freya said baldly. "Now, about the Seelie Court and their vagabond shapeshifters…"

* * *

"Bonnie, calm down."

"I am calm!" Bonnie snapped.

Caroline snorted, elegantly sipping the glass of wine she had helped herself to. "You could have fooled me."

Bonnie ignored her, as she continued her pacing across the worn carpet in the drawing room that Elijah had left them in. She felt like if her skin was on fire, her blood hot and pounding with magic, wanting to be unleashed. The fear and rage she had felt when Rebekah had attacked Kai…

She put her hands on her face and swallowed a sob.

"Kai's fine, Bonnie," Caroline said gently. "He did his cloaking trick and got out of harm's way before you had even got to your feet. I don't think he was ever in any danger."

"I know he's fine," Bonnie admitted, her voice coming out thick and hoarse through the fingers that were still pressing into her face. Of course, she knew how he was. She could always sense him when he was near; and now she felt him, close, alert, unharmed. Hopefully nowhere near the demolished wing.

She sighed loudly.

A warm hand on her shoulder made her lift her hands. She looked at the proffered drink, then up at Matt's blank face.

"You're in shock," he said quietly. "This will help."

"I'm not some newbie witch, Matt," Bonnie retorted but she took the drink gratefully. It helped calm her somewhat, at least enough to stop feeling like she needed to rush through the building until she could see he was safe with her own eyes. Then perhaps, rush past him to find Rebekah Mikaelson and eviscerate her.

She took another gulp and started pacing again.

"Bonnie…" Caroline started.

" _What?_ "

Caroline opened her mouth, studied her friend, then shut it. After a moment, she said, more to Matt than Bonnie, "So April and Rebekah remained friends all this while. Call me a pushover, but I felt sorry for her."

"That was no reason for her to go about attacking people," Bonnie growled.

"Well, she had a point," Matt retorted. Bonnie glared at him for that but he didn't back down, his face stern. "She did. If the freaking Gemini leader had done something about the heretics, they wouldn't be running loose now, piling up bodies to cover up whatever it is they're up to."

"He did do something about them. He nearly _died_ taking them out last year."

"Obviously, he didn't do a very good job, did he? Or they won't be here now. You know, there's a big chance that that wasn't a slip up on his part, right?"

Bonnie almost threw her glass in his face. "Not this again, Matt."

"Think about it, Bonnie. He was supposed to have killed all of them but somehow two escaped. And now they're killing Gemini exiles. Sometimes the most obvious answer _is_ the right one."

Bonnie blinked at him, then turned to Caroline who, to Bonnie's relief, was staring at Matt with an incredulous expression, then turned back to him.

"So let me get this straight. Kai almost dies killing four of the heretics. But he spares two so that…? What? He can keep them in his pocket for a year, and set them on the same exiles that he's currently pardoning? And all parties involved got over their differences. You know – the small matter of them _torturing him for days in the 1903_ or _him murdering their siblings_ _and_ –" She held her tongue in time. Even now, as angry as she was, she reflexively stopped at spilling the truth about Lily Salvatore.

"And what?" Matt demanded, belligerently. "And this has never happened before? We haven't been betrayed because we took sides only to find out that these so-called enemies had more in common than we thought?"

"Guys," Caroline started but Bonnie overrode her, her own temper flaring again.

"OK, Matt, you need to hold it right there. I know you hate him but you weren't there. You weren't in 1903 when I found him. You didn't see what they did to him. You weren't at Jo's wedding and you sure as hell weren't with Kai afterwards. You have _no_ freaking idea what you're talking about. So keep your opinion to yourself!"

Matt flinched like if she had slapped him. Caroline's gasp was the only sound in the dead silence that followed.

Their friend threw Bonnie a furious look but while guilt smote Bonnie enough to look away from that stark hurt on Matt's face, she also felt a great deal of justified irritation at him. She downed her glass and walked to the fireplace, flopping into one of the armchairs. She folded her arms and gazed steadily at the fake fire.

Caroline got to her feet. "Matt… We're all upset. She didn't mean it that way…"

"Sure, she did. I'm just the useless mundane." He started marching towards the door.

Bonnie whirled around. A sad, yet still angry ball formed in her stomach. "That's not true, Matt and you know that. I don't know what's got into you lately." She looked at Caroline imploringly for help.

But Caroline was watching Matt with narrowed eyes, looking rather ticked off herself. "Did you really mean half of the things you said at dinner or were you too caught up in your pissing contest with Kai Parker?"

Matt turned to her with a stubborn look on his face. "I meant every word. Look, don't take it personally, Care, but I've–"

" _Don't take it personally_ ," She mimicked. "One of my closest and oldest friends _and_ one-time boyfriend, in case you've forgotten, wants to support the Society that kidnaps and cuts up people like me… the Society that kidnapped and cut up _Elena –_ another old, close friend and ex. I think that's exactly the kind of thing that people should take personally, don't you, Bonnie?"

Bonnie crossed her arms and stared at him stonily.

Matt threw up his hands. "So you two are ganging up on me now? I'm not even–" He turned around.

Neither girl said a word to stop him.

His hand was on the doorknob, when he halted. His shoulders rose, then fell. "This is the point where I'll swear I'm catching the next flight home." His voice was as hard as his face looked when he turned around. "But Mystic Falls is my town too. You guys may think that Kai is right and I don't bring _anything to the table_ but Mundane or not, I'm seeing this through."

"An excellent suggestion, Officer Donovan."

The three spun around to see Elijah Mikaelson standing in the open doorway, neatly folding his handkerchief into his breast-pocket. "Especially as, I daresay considering recent discussions, this would be of particular interest to you."

"Really?" Matt asked, suspiciously. "Why?"

"As my sister Freya explained at dinner, the Augustine Society's Inauguration Ceremony is their attempt to win over the supernatural community. There will be speeches; there will be exhibitions; there will be auctions. They shall aggressively court whoever they regard as a power player in our community and they desperately wish to court Ms. Bennett."

Bonnie started. Caroline and Matt exchanged sharp glances.

"Bonnie?" Caroline asked slowly.

"Are you surprised? As you heard the Regent say, Ms. Bennett here is something of a legend in our world. A Bennett witch. A former Anchor. Perhaps legend is not appropriate. Phenomenon would be more apt."

"Why didn't they just ask me directly?" Bonnie demanded. "Why am I hearing this from you?"

"Because letting my family vet their guest-lists and have the discretion to act as a middle man between them and certain personalities were part of the conditions of hosting this event in New Orleans." Elijah smiled, his eyes glinted. "When I got that call from Stefan Salvatore, I took advantage of the opportunity to vet you."

"You asked us all to come to New Orleans… so that Bonnie could come to a party?" Caroline asked slowly.

"Ms. Bennett and her friends, of course. There is one little thing, though…"

Bonnie tensed. Because she knew Elijah Mikaelson didn't make her fly across the country to attend a party. Whatever he was about to say next, she wasn't going to like it.

"As an honored guest, you will be afforded VIP access to the Society during the Ceremony. I would appreciate it if you used your privileges to retrieve an object from the Augustine and deliver it to me."

Identical expressions of alarm filled Caroline's and Matt's faces as they turned to Bonnie.

"You want me to steal for you?" Bonnie asked quietly.

"Technically, you would be recovering for me something that was mine and my family's from the first."

"You want me to _steal_ for you from a Society that puts people like me under a microscope?"

Elijah took out his handkerchief, smoothened out the wrinkles, and folded it neatly. "I am so glad we understand each other."

* * *

A torch in hand, Freya guided him down the winding steps that led to the cold, damp dungeons where the Ghiaccis were being kept. The flickering yellow light touched on the damp walls, the red stains on the stones, and startled the crows that apparently lived there. Then there was the ever-present putrid smell of things that had no doubt died there.

"I can see that your home lives down to its name," Kai muttered.

"It serves its purpose. Enemies of my family who leave this place will not be so eager to return." After a pause, Freya added. "You of all people should appreciate that there are worse places."

Kai thought of his Prison World. "At least I had central heating," he said glibly, to hide the reflexive shudder. His collar was still damp, and he felt the cold keenly. An association of ideas made him ask, "How is your dear baby brother, Klaus?"

It was her turn to scoff. "You care for his well-being?"

"Yes," Kai said honestly. "There's this small matter of the vampire genocide that his death would bring about so…"

It was a genuine cause for concern. And the specific vampires affected – and the witch affiliated with these specific vampires – had nothing to with anything.

"He is safe… and safely out of harm's way. No doubt he will be extremely irate when I eventually let him out." She tsked. "Reason and my brother do not get along very well. He did not see the advantages of the treaty; only the limitations."

"Tell me about it." Kai shuddered at some unpleasant memories.

He looked over his shoulder at the window of light that filtered through the trap door, getting smaller and smaller. He imagined that thread that seemed to connect him and Bonnie getting thinner and thinner as well. He knew she was still nearby. But he could no longer tell how close, or if she was even still in the building, or just in the general area around the Compound.

Seemed appropriate. Him sinking to the depths and losing track of her, his self-righteous angel.

She had certainly felt like an avenging angel this evening, when she had unleashed her power at Rebekah Mikaelson.

He turned his gaze from that dimming light, and his own dark thoughts. "And while we're on the subject of Mikaelsons who've tried to murder me, where is your baby sister?"

"Safely ensconced in her chambers. She will do you no harm, I assure you."

Kai rubbed his throat gingerly. "A bit too late for that." They still hadn't discussed the small matter of Rebekah Mikaelson's attempted murder of him being a stark violation of one of the tenets of their treaty. He was keeping that card to play later.

"Will you at least consider meeting with the Augustine in person?" Freya asked abruptly.

He eyed the back of her head, wondering if the vamp blood her siblings were no doubt slipping into her wine had curdled in her brain. "Er… like I said upstairs to you and the Regent… that would be a No." He intended to send an Envoy, but nothing more. He had no intention of attending; the Gemini Praetor's presence at their Inauguration would imply Gemini endorsement of the Augustine Society.

Freya sighed heavily. "They will not like it. That is not what they wished."

Kai shrugged. That was hers and Vincent's problem, not his.

The steps stopped at a spot half-way down a narrow corridor. The walls were high, perhaps as high as the length of the entire building. Close to the top were narrow windows, a meter wide every other meter from one end of the corridor to the other. The moonlight coming through them barely touched the opposite walls, and the only light came from Freya's torch. Before Kai and Freya were a row of cages, lining the opposite side of the corridor as far as the eye could see.

Freya turned left, and started walking, Kai on her heels. With his senses alert, he could detect the presence of all manner of creatures behind those bars. Most of them were asleep, or unconscious, or just wallowing in too much despair to show any sign of life.

What a _remarkable_ place. What could the Ghiaccis possibly be running from to warrant choosing _this_ over a full pardon?

He'd give a great deal to know who else was here and why.

"There is no prisoner here that's being held in violation of the treaty," Freya said, apropos of nothing.

"Thought never crossed my mind," Kai said blithely.

Moments later, she stopped walking. She placed her torch into a holder inserted in the stone wall between two cages, then drew Kai close to a set of the bars.

"Quentin Ghiacci, Danielle Ghiacci, Timoth Ghiacci, come forth."

Something in the deep recesses of the cell seemed to stir. Kai clutched the bars, and peered hard into the darkness, trying to make out what seemed like two… no three… forms inside. Two sat facing each other, their backs against the wall. While the third lay between them on the ground. Feet together, arms clasped over stomach, it was spread like a corpse.

Quickly, he curled his fingers into a fist, then opened them. Witch-light glowed in his palm, illuminating the corridor and making some of the wretched creatures nearby hiss away from the light, and the two in the cell shrunk away from it. He ignored them, focusing completely on the man on the ground. To his relief, he noticed that his chest lifted and fell in slowly, almost imperceptibly. He was still alive.

But still…

"He's not waking up soon."

The voice was scratchy with disuse, but still familiar. Kai gaped at the grimy looking person sitting against the left wall.

"Danielle?"

"Malachai?" She got to her feet, squinting against the light. "Wow, you look half our age."

She looked twice her own. The pale-skinned, black-haired Ghiacci looks did not go well with starvation and lack of reliable plumbing.

"Dani, come back," whined the other sitting figure.

"Quiet, Tim." She rolled her eyes at Kai. "You remember Tim? We all played games together as children."

Yeah, he remembered. If by 'all' she meant Josette, Josiah and the other witches their age and if by 'games' she meant the cruel pranks that Danielle Ghiacci – the cool kid that knew all the illicit hexes – liked practicing on everyone's favorite guinea pig siphon.

"How can I forget?" he said sweetly. He nodded at the figure over her shoulder. "Wake up your old man and gather your things. We're going home."

She snickered. Behind her, Tim joined in. Ah, Kai remembered this, too. The private jokes. Usually with him as the punchline.

"Care to share?"

"He's not waking up anytime soon," she repeated. "Sleeping Beauty curse. The moment he sensed you in this house, he started the spell. He's bound his consciousness to this cell. If you move him, he dies. And don't bother trying to siphon it out. The curse is the only thing keeping him alive."

 _What the fuck?_ He whirled on Freya. "You kept witches prisoners without putting in wards to suppress their magic?"

"We did," Freya insisted, looking surprised.

"Perks of being a family skilled in the dark arts," Danielle crowed. "We can circumvent your pesky wards."

Freya's lip curled with distaste. "Well, whatever they did, it wasn't enough to let them escape."

"Well, he found an exit all the same," Kai growled, glaring at the figure on the ground. Was there anything going to go right for him this evening? First that extremely unexpected encounter and now this?

He considered hexing Danielle's smug face, and only narrowly changed his mind. "If you don't mind Freya, can I borrow a little sage? I'd like to speak to my witches in confidence."

"You can always just take them," she said, looking put out. "They are yours to claim, after all."

He examined the two in the cage. They looked like a pair of trapped rats. He didn't fail to see the flicker of hope that crossed their faces.

"Nope." Kai grinned as that flicker died. "I think they're good right here."

The cloying scent of burning sage filled the poorly-ventilated dungeon.

Kai had conjured a small stool and straddled it, letting the witch-light float above him like his personal halo. Freya had left with her torch, although she insisted on hovering at the foot of the steps. Did she think he would try to prison-break some other Mikaelson captive? Kai wished he had the spare time.

He had also asked her to raise the iron bars. She had been skeptical, which had made Kai feel slightly insulted, but she done so.

He now regarded the two in front of him unfiltered. They looked even more pathetic. Whatever clothes they had been captured in were worn and dirty. Apparently the Mikaelsons Penitentiary did not provide laundry services. Nor five course meals if their prisoners' bony frames were any indication.

"You two. Start talking. Now."

"There's nothing to say," Tim managed, his voice still hoarse. "We'd been living in Puerto Rico for years, hiding from our…" He cleared his throat. "… let's say creditors."

Kai sneered. "Creditors. Diplomatic."

Tim coughed. "According to Quentin, he went into exile with Joshua and the others when you became leader. After Joshua convinced everyone to accept you as coven leader" – Danielle make a sound of derision – "Quentin joined us. We moved around a couple of times across the continent. We even considered going to Europe. The family has property there but it belongs to the Tony branch and Tony Junior was already residing there and refused to take us in."

"Snobs," Danielle said glumly. "Explain to me why they got a 'sabbatical' but we got 'exiled'?"

"Because they swore their allegiance to their new Praetor," Kai told her. "Dumbass."

She glared. "Really? Or were you just too weak to go through with your threats? I heard Luke broke you."

Kai flinched.

She noticed and her eyes glinted with malice. "You're toothless now." She turned to her husband. "I told Father that we could go back, didn't I? That if he hadn't murdered Bethany Stewart, then _Father_ had nothing to fear."

"Fear of what?" Kai snapped.

"What do you think? You were a spiteful little monster who went from pulling out beetle legs to his little siblings'. Won't any sane person fear you, Malachai?"

He was getting sick and tired of people throwing his past in his face.

His fingers curled into a fist; and the bout of aneurysm took her to knees with a scream. Tim stood up, yelling and Kai flexed his wrist. The man crumpled to the ground.

"I could have performed a Revocation on all the exiles the moment the Council completed the _Redimio_ **.** Instead, I sent out _venia_ and what I get is…" He drew a sharp breath. This was pointless. He was just proving that they get under his skin. He lifted the curse, gave them a moment to pull their sorry selves together. "Timothy, you were saying?"

The other man whimpered. But one glance at Kai's steely face and clenched fist, and he pushed through. "We were hiding in South America, getting by with as little magic as possible so as not to draw your focus on us. Every now and then, Quentin would go back to the States."

"Why?"

"I don't know," he said nervously. "He kept his business to himself. I knew he was in touch with some of the other exiles. I guessed he was meeting with them."

"Which exiles?"

"Tim," Danielle said sharply.

Her husband fell silent, switching nervous glances from her to Kai. Apparently, the unspoken threat of another aneurysm was not enough motivation.

Very well.

"I can always perform a Veritork on you." Kai grinned, showing teeth.

They shrank back.

"You won't dare," Danielle snapped, but her voice shook. "I don't even believe you know how."

Kai's grin broadened. " _Luke_ must have performed several. It's in my head, somewhere. I'll keep trying until I get it right."

Tim raised his hands. "I will tell you everything I know. I swear! I will!"

Kai locked his fingers over the back of the chair and leaned forward. "I'm listening. Who was Quentin in touch with?"

"Our family. Uncle Anthony. He sent a few letters to Tony Junior, but he and his wife never wanted anything to do with us. His old Envoy buddies," Tim stammered his words, not noticing Kai's jerk at that. "The Stewart Chief. Her sister. The Briggs… I overheard him arguing with Patrice Lang once, but I don't think they ever spoke again after that. Also, the Pr… Your…" He glanced at Kai, and trembled.

"Your father," Danielle finished spitefully.

"Thanks," Kai said coldly, "but I kinda figured that out myself." There was a long pause during which Danielle looked mutinous and Tim looked ready to faint. "Did you happen to overhear any of these discussions?"

"No," Tim said quickly. "He always burnt sage. He was very discreet, very careful. He kept a journal meticulously that we tried to… skim through… But even that was encrypted. A week ago, he told us all to pack and return to the States. I already knew about the _venia_ from our friends in exile across the country. We thought we were coming to accept it. We wanted to accept it," he said earnestly. "We truly did! But the moment we arrived in New Orleans, I realized what he planned and it was too late. Danielle and I had got into trouble with Klaus Mikaelson a few years ago when we traded him some… artifact." He cleared his throat nervously and Kai knew that by 'artifact' he meant 'dark object'. "It had unexpected side effects. Completely unforeseeable but Klaus held us responsible for them. He was one of our most persistent 'creditors'. We had barely been in New Orleans for an hour when the Mikaelson minions swooped in us and Quentin surrendered without a fight." He finished with a gasp, having spoken longer in one breath than he must have for days.

He gasped again when Kai rose to his feet, and stepped inside the cell. Both of them shrank away, Danielle's bravado fading. Kai barely noticed; he was too busy gagging from the god-awful smell that had assaulted him as soon as he crossed the invisible line between prison and corridor. The wards that muted the prisoners's magic must also keep the smells within the cell. He felt like retching, and from what he spotted on the ground, the others must have given into the urge at least once or twice. Trying not to think about all the things that combined to create a stench this foul, he crouched to his haunches next to Quentin Ghiacci's body, and studied the old man.

Typical Ghiacci look, although grey hair had almost edged out the black. He was familiar-looking. Not in a striking way like the Stewarts, nor the Briggs, nor fondly remembered like old Uncle Ben, nor even a loathed face like Patrice Lang. But Kai knew he must have seen him a few times in the past. Someone who had certainly passed through the Parker house a handful of times while Kai grew up.

He also looked about the same age as Joshua Parker. So that made him another Envoy who had served with his parents.

And he had left a message for Patrice Lang saying that he was stuck between _the devil and the deep blue sea_.

The deep blue sea was clearly the Mikaelsons, whom Quentin had chosen to die in their cellar rather than accept an unconditional pardon from the Gemini Praetor. But who or what was the devil? Kai himself? Had Quentin been so terrified or outraged at having to swear allegiance to a siphon that he preferred to damn himself? Or had he feared the heretics?

Or Joshua Parker?

What _was_ Joshua's plan here? All these envoys who had been trained with him. All – save one – remaining in exile. All dying in exile. Or at least willing to risk death than return to the coven.

Briggs. Briggs. Stewart. Lang. Ghiacci.

The string of names almost sounded like a nursery rhyme.

He stretched his hand over the man's head, probed his essence. There was always a chance that the spell was a bluff, and Kai could siphon it off with no ill effects. But a desperate Envoy would not have taken that chance.

He rose to his feet, and stepped out of the cell.

"Won't you be freeing us then?" Danielle asked, finding her courage now that Kai was retreating.

"Your uncle is the only person here that I really want and apparently, I can't have him. So – no."

"That's not fair! We never even got a chance to receive a _venium_ , much less reject it! We'd have accepted if we had the chance!"

Kai tsked. "I sent out _venia_ a week ago. Before then, you had a _year_ to return to Portland and swear allegiance. You've made your bed, _friends_. Now you lie on it."

She rushed at him just as he stepped across the border between her cell and freedom. The bars fell sharply, almost slicing off her face.

Kai guffawed, then turned to Freya who was standing some meters away. With a wave of his hand, the burning sage extinguished. "Thanks."

The Ghiaccis were still yelling curses as he walked away. Kai snuffed out his witch-light, plunging them back to the single gloom of Freya's torch. After a while, the curses lowered to wails.

"You're really going to leave them here with us?" Freya asked, dismally.

"For those two? I'd _pay_ you to keep them." His mind was racing ahead as they started up the steps. "Think you can spare one of your bratty siblings for me?"

"For what?"

"Transit. Of the mental variety. I need a ticket into the old guy's head."

* * *

 _June 2013_

 _Mystic Falls_

The blood had been just enough to revive them and they were already failing by the time it was over. As gratifying as it was to watch these monsters so vulnerable, it started getting boring after the first hour. There were only so many hours in the day and he had a wedding to attend.

Thankfully, Iceman didn't disappoint. The meanest and the strongest, he woke first. His creepy eyes blinked hard against the unfamiliar surroundings. Then in a flash, he was on his feet, his teeth bared as he rushed towards the fresh meat sitting cross-legged at the far side of the room –

– and smashed into the invisible barrier between them.

"Watch out for the glass," Kai sing-sang.

The heretic rubbed his nose, scorn written all over his face. He walked up to the barrier, his hands feeling for the length and breadth of it. Kai watched, curiously. After a while, the man splayed his fingers flat on the invisible wall, and his eyes started glowing as his palms turned red.

"Er… Iceman… yoo hoo?"

The heretic deigned to glance his way.

"I won't do that if I were you. That is the only thing keeping you in this reality. You suck up that barrier and you get yanked right out of this place."

"Do it," hissed a voice from behind Iceman. Kai inclined his head to see Cherokee rising from the floor, pulling himself up against the wall. "I'd rather go back there than stay in this cage."

As Iceman hesitated, the other insisted, eyes flashing. "I cautioned you, but you did not heed. None did. He was never going to free us."

"A gold star for Cherokee."

"Do not call me that, you viper. When I lay hands on you–"

" _When_? I don't think you understand what the situation is here. Right now, this is what they call, the classic 'tables are turned' scenario. _You_ are now at _my_ mercy."

"Do it, Lucius." The twins were up now, propping each other to their knees.

"Free us from this place."

"I'd rather expire than grovel to the Gemini once again."

"Is it just me," Kai mused, "or do you two share a brain? Because the way you talk is hella creepy."

"We were not always compassionate towards you," and it was Medusa that was up now, her arms stretched out wide and imploring. There was a barrier between them but Kai still felt his skin break out in gooseflesh. "Our hunger turned us to beasts. Our envy of your magic made us mean. But whether you will it or no, we are brethren. We are outcasts alike. Abandoning us is abandoning yourself."

"So," Kai said through stiff lips, "when you fed on me, and drained my magic, and got into my head, and gave me nightmares, and I dunno… did everything you could to break me… that was just tough love?"

She frowned, confused. "I cannot comprehend your speech."

"Neither can I, lady," he retorted. "Because yours… is full of bullshit."

She definitely understood that, if the way her face stretched tight with fury was any indication. "I will crush you underfoot and ground you into powder, you insipid little brat."

"I like you better this way." He smirked at the furious faces and felt so pleased. "Scarface, any last words?"

Scarface didn't condescend to reply. He turned to Iceman. "Do it, Lucius. Get us out of here. We were liberated once, and we shall be liberated again. Our beloved Lily is free and safe and for that we shall hold fast."

Iceman nodded, then pressed his hands against the barrier.

"Er… excuse me? Did either of you mention Lily Salvatore?" Kai piped. "Something about her being safe and free?" He threw back his head and laughed as outrageously as he could.

The six seemed to turn into stone.

"He has killed her," Gingerdee whimpered. "He has killed our mother!"

"Be silent," her brother whispered harshly. "Show no weakness."

Kai raised his eyebrows. It was the first time he had seen them actually speak to each other and not just finish their sentences to someone else. He had been half-joking about the shared brain dig. Until now, he really hadn't been sure that the twins weren't the result of some twisted Gemini-merge-ceremony-gone-wrong.

"If she is dead," Medusa said quietly, "then at least she is at peace. I'd rather she was dead than cast out to another Prison World, languishing alone and forsaken." Her eyes spat rage at Kai. "Do you hear me, Traitor? I am _glad_ you have killed her. I only wish you could kill us, too and end our misery."

"Oh, but he can't," Cherokee said, throwing Kai a sly glance. "No one can. Surely by now, the Praetor" – he said the word mockingly –"has realized the purpose of the Prison Worlds."

Kai smiled grimly at that.

Cherokee turned to his family. "You are right, dear Narcissa. Lily's free through her death. But we shall live. And one day, we shall be free."

"You'll never be free," Kai hissed.

"Do it, Lucius," the other five yelled at Iceman.

"Oh, I won't do that if I were you," Kai snapped.

"We won't stay here and be tortured –"

"– and tormented by you," the twins said.

"Your mother is not dead!"

They froze. They were a mismatched bunch these six, but at that moment, they wore identical expressions of mingled hope and horror.

"She is … alive?"

"You know, one thing that really popped out to me when I was doing my homework at the Archives in Portland was just how fucking _expensive_ Prison Worlds are. Not in mundane money, but in magical firepower."

As they gawked in confusion, Kai continued. "You know the first Architects died for every World they built? Took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to correctly harness the celestial energies, the right formula for the ritual to activate an Ascendant, the precise adaptation of Qetsiyah's original spell to create a World that would serve its purpose and no more? And I won't even go into how long it took for them to figure out that the Worlds needed to be tailored to size or they would be unstable, and let's not forget the fail-safe to self-destruct once they were emptied if you didn't want a magical cataclysm to…"

"What is this drivel?" Gingerdee muttered.

"Has he gone mad?" Gingerdum worried.

Kai pointed his index at them like a teacher giving a gold star. "That's _exactly_ what I wondered about the Praetor that locked Lily in your Prison World. Why waste a Prison World on a Ripper when a good ol' stake through the heart can solve that problem? Like I said – darn expensive. The coven really reserves them for things they can't kill. Invincible heretics… rogue Praetors…"

"Is Lily alive or not?" Iceman roared. "Tell us now!"

Kai steepled his fingers under his chin and leaned back in his chair. "In a moment. Just sharing some of the scintillating information I found when I was designing Lily's Prison Word, special Ripper Edition."

He watched the glimmers of hope on their faces give completely to horror, and he grinned.

"Turns out that the only reason why she was in 1903, not isolated and killed off was because the coven wasn't sure what her dying would do to your sire bond. Would it cut you off or make you even more unstable? I can't imagine why anyone would think the latter is even possible. You've all pretty much maxed out on the Psycho meter…"

Scarface growled. Medusa was clenching and unclenching her fists as if she imagined them around his neck.

"Still, it didn't seem _right_ , you know, to lump you guys together. You might take comfort in each other or something and I won't want that, would I?"

The twins snarled.

"It took the better part of the month to get it done, then I had to set this place up for you – more about that in a second – and convince the Council to agree to donate the much-needed magical batteries. But in the end, it was worth it." He kissed the tips of his fingers and flicked them. " _Bellissimo_!"

Cherokee growled. "You vile creature."

"Well, they say there's no accounting for taste. After all, I only added in certain ripper-perks like an eternal decanter of blood that refills everyday and follows her around no matter where she goes. Just the right scenario for a self-hating, previously teetooling ripper to gorge herself out and wrack herself with guilt over and over and over and over…"

The hulking Neanderthal staggered back as if from a physical blow as the twins threw themselves on the glass. "Shut up!"

"Imagine the depths of self-loathing, of self-hatred. Imagine how many times she will keep trying to kill herself and keep failing. Imagine how she won't even be able to desiccate because there will always be that one bottle of blood. Everywhere she goes. Just the one bottle following her around like her shadow. She'll never be away from it. She'll never be free of her own addiction."

Medusa was crying now. Iceman, too. Scarface looked stonily ahead with glassy eyes. Cherokee's head was bowed. The twins were smashing against the barrier as if they could pass through it by sheer force of will.

Pathetic.

Some, not all, of this was true. There was an Ascendant, currently spinning its gears in Portland, with Lily Salvatore and her firstborn's name on it. Kai had genuinely not known what the ripper's death would do to the heretics and it just seemed economical to kill two birds with one stone – keep her alive, and settle his score with Damon Salvatore. As for the ripper perks, that would make Damon's eternal cohabitation with his mother a little more interesting. Many times while Kai worked on the gears of the Ascendant, he had amused himself with mental bets on how long it would take before Lily started ripping off her son's head.

However, he hadn't got round to powering the Ascendant. His priority really, had been the heretics, in preparing this place for them.

That was twelve hours ago, before he had heard Bonnie's heart stop beating.

Funny how much could change in such a short time.

Now, Lily's Prison World was moot. The ripper was dead; her victim had, by some bizarre, incredulous miracle, survived; and even though he still hated Damon Salvatore, Kai didn't feel a burning need to lock up the man who killed Bonnie's murderer.

However, it was a shame that all that brilliance would never be realized. It was only fair that he shared it with such a captive audience.

And they were captive, weren't they? Now _this_ was a work of art, a complicated bit of magic that Kai was especially proud of.

"Lily… Mother… Lily…"

Kai thought of the woman's warm heart beating in her son's hands; and his own words haunted him.

 _'Death is too good for her.'_

"Oh, and just to make you all feel better? I destroyed the Ascendant. And since she's not a witch, has no magic of her own…" He tut-tutted.

"Get us out of here!" Scarface roared suddenly. He rushed to the barrier and smashed his palms against it. His already defective face seemed to deform even more as he started siphoning.

Kai tsked. "Yo, Gorgeous? You don't have anywhere _else_ to go. The Ascendant in this world is gone. Destroyed. If you break through, you won't get back to 1903 and you won't get out either."

Scarface stopped. "What?" he growled.

"You'll be scattered across all the narrow passages between reality and every possible dimensional gateway out there. That's like an Ascension that never actually gets you anywhere. Imagine riding an elevator that never opens on any floor. By yourself. _For all eternity_."

As they stared at him in horror, his smile broadened. "You were boasting a little while ago of being indestructible, right? Go ahead and break yourselves out and let's see how much you enjoy your immortality."

* * *

 _June 2014_

"Tell me you're not considering breaking into some Augustine vault for Elijah Mikaelson."

They stood at the foyer, watching the car approaching. Matt had given her his jacket and she wrapped it around her tightly, not so much because of the slightly chill New Orleans evening, but to shield herself from his probing stare.

"What's taking Caroline so long?" she whispered nervously, as the valet parked the car, tossing Matt the keys. She stretched her senses as far as she could, probing. But it wasn't for Caroline, who had stopped to use the conveniences, that she was searching.

 _Where was he?_

Elijah had told her that Rebekah was safely sequestered in her quarters, warded in by Freya. But the fact remained that she had almost killed him. And now Bonnie could barely sense him, her connection to him faint. Was he still in the Compound? Had he left? How could she know he was safe?

"You're seriously going to avoid the question?"

Bonnie sighed, giving up her mental detour. The tension between her and Matt from earlier had not abated; but right now, Bonnie was more tired than upset.

"Matt, I don't know yet. I told Elijah I'll give him an answer in the morning because obviously, I need to think about it."

"There's nothing to think about, Bonnie. We can't steal this thing for him. Assuming, of course, that we don't get caught, violate whatever treaty Mr. Gemini and the rest have drawn up in this place and get thrown into some dungeon to rot! We can't let the Mikaelsons have this kind of power. It's unethical."

"It's also kind of unethical to let the heretics keep killing people, Matt. We're between the devil and the deep blue sea here."

He choked back a curse. "I don't think it's worth the risk. And you know I have your back in this–"

Actually, Bonnie _hadn't_ known so it was nice to have the reassurance.

"– but in the end, it's your neck that's on the line if this thing goes wrong."

"That's why Elijah's asking me to do it," Bonnie said quietly. "I'm not a New Orleans witch. I've signed no treaty. If I'm caught, he can easily deny any knowledge of this."

"Leaving you out to dry?" She bit her lip and said nothing. But something in the heat rising on her face must have given her away because his eyes narrowed. "Or is he banking on someone else bailing you out?"

A cold awareness only warned her a moment before Elijah Mikaelson appeared like a ghost beside Matt. "Officer Donovan."

Matt started at once, his hand going to his hip. Elijah glanced at the motion, then across at Bonnie, and she could see in his face that he was remembering that ugly conversation between Matt and _him_ at dinner. She flushed and looked away, feeling inexplicably like if she was being disloyal to Matt, who was still her friend even if he was currently acting like an ass.

"What do you want, Elijah?" Matt asked warily.

The Original smiled genially. "Caroline asked me to invite you to the conversation she's currently having with the Regent."

"I'm not interested."

"I insist."

"Look, Elijah–"

"I'll be fine, Matt," Bonnie said quietly. "You go ahead."

She half-expected him to argue but instead, he just scowled at her, then walked away, shouldering Elijah deliberately.

Bonnie watched him go. _What was up with him?_

Elijah dusted off an invisible fleck of Matt-dirt from his shoulder. "Interesting reaction. I suppose I could have come up with a better excuse to get you alone."

Bonnie didn't return the smile. "If you pressure me for a decision now, then my answer will be a No."

Elijah's smile oozed condescension. "Do you have any alternatives? I understand that these heretics are hard to kill."

"Don't let my problems keep you up at night," Bonnie snapped. _Because I'll be damned if I let you back me into a corner_.

Some of her anger must have shown in her face because he raised his hands in surrender. "We're at cross-purposes here. It's not my intention to browbeat you, Bonnie. You asked for time to consider my request and I will respect that. What I wanted to discuss was something else entirely." He hesitated. "Something of a more… intimate matter…"

Bonnie blinked, surprised. For the first time she had ever met him, Elijah Mikaelson looked nervous. "What matter?"

"Well… While you were the Anchor…"

Bonnie looked away before he could see her flinch. How easily he said it. Just as he had done earlier at the dinner.

And just like before, he was oblivious, still prattling words that Bonnie barely heard. Not that Bonnie could rightfully single him out for blame. Everyone had been oblivious. Even her friends.

Everyone, that is, except _him_.

"… when she died?"

Bonnie blinked. Elijah had stopped talking, and was looking at her eagerly – almost desperately.

"When _who_ died?" she asked, not caring if it was obvious that she hadn't been paying attention.

Elijah sighed, his eyes flickering with pain. "Katerina."

Oh.

Now Bonnie remembered. Elijah and Katherine Pierce had been _something_ to each other, hadn't they? Only given the choice between Katherine and his family, Elijah had chosen his family – first all those centuries ago, and again when he left with them for New Orleans. Katherine had remained in Mystic Falls and consoled herself with chasing Silas-like immortality and, when that failed, enacting her twisted 'vengeance' on Elena. Which led to Elena force-feeding her the Cure. Which led to her dying from her new-found mortality. The ultimate survivor, Katherine Pierce had fought her death to the bitter end.

But in the end, she had lost.

"How did she die?"

Bonnie eyed him. "Why? Is that another condition to our deal? Vengeance for her death? After all this time?"

"No," he said quietly, heavily. "It's not a condition. It's a… I knew she was dying and… I wasn't there. My brother-" He laughed bitterly. "– who _hated_ her, was. To gloat, I suppose. Thanks to your friend, Caroline, Katerina was spared that much. _But he was there and I wasn't_. She died surrounded by enemies."

 _Not exactly_ , Bonnie thought. Elena had sat by Katherine's death-bed and given her absolution. Katherine had paid that back by body-jacking her. Her own daughter Nadia, who had loved her beyond any merit of hers, had also been there, to help her survive through Elena. Katherine had showed her motherly affection by letting her daughter die of werewolf bite.

"What do you want, Elijah?" Bonnie mused. "For me to assuage your conscience? Make you feel better? Tell some cute little platitude to the bereaved?"

He was silent for a long time. Bonnie watched, expecting his anger. But when he spoke, he sounded sad. "I do not remember you being this hard, Ms. Bennett."

"No, you don't. You remember a little girl who let you and the Salvatores push her around like a chess piece. A little girl you were ready to sacrifice so you and your millennia-old siblings could live for another millennium more. Forgive me if I don't have any softness inside me for you. My mother is doing very well, thanks for asking."

He flinched.

Bonnie locked her jaw. "Katherine Pierce is dead. A lifetime of double-dealing and back-stabbing and sacrificing every random person to survive finally caught up with her. She cared for no one, not even her own daughter, and she died as she lived – miserable and alone and –"

 _Afraid._

" _Bonnie, what are you doing? Let me pass through! Why won't you let me pass through?"_

" _I don't know! I don't control it!"_

 _Katherine screaming, fighting tooth and nail as_ It _dragged her into the darkness._

 _Oblivion was supposed to be a void. An empty, lifeless darkness where nothing remained. Whatever had taken Katherine hadn't been a void. Hadn't been empty. Hadn't been…_

… _Dead._

"And what?" Elijah asked, desperately. "When the Other Side disintegrated, did she survive? Did she find a loophole like you did?"

Bonnie inhaled deeply, struggling to push that haunting, harrowing memory out of her head. But she couldn't.

 _She was back in those heartbeats of time after Katherine had vanished and Bonnie had stood petrified before that altar. Her hair had lifted from her neck and it wasn't the wind; her skin had crawled but it was a warm night; stench had filled her nostrils but it hadn't been the garbage._

 _She had felt_ It _, circling her, scrutinizing her…_

 _Considering her._

"… as did Damon? My brothers…?"

Bonnie exhaled sharply; and she was in New Orleans, in the foyer of the Mikaelson's compound, talking to one of the most insensitive people she had known in her short life.

"No," Bonnie said abruptly. _Whatever_ had taken Katherine, _Wherever_ it had taken Katherine, Bonnie knew with atavistic certainty that there was no coming back. That was no other Other Side. That was no Prison World. That was The End. "She did not. I saw her – go. Katherine Pierce is gone, Elijah."

He closed his eyes. Despite everything, a flicker of sympathy ran through Bonnie. She couldn't help it. She was right. She owed this man nothing. Not even kindness. But …

She couldn't help it.

"She found peace," she lied. His eyes flew open, mingled hope and incredulity warring in them and Bonnie shrugged, selling the lie with indifference. "She always said she was the ultimate survivor. Don't ask me how she did it because I don't know. All I know is that… she found Peace. She wasn't sucked into Oblivion."

"I…" He stretched out his hand, maybe to hold her but Bonnie took two smart steps backwards. He let his hand fall, feebly, to his side.

The whole moment was surreal. She had never seen this man so vulnerable. It made him human, and she didn't want to see Elijah Mikaelson that way.

"If I had known this was so important to you, I would have made you pay for it," she said, only half-joking. "I don't suppose you'll let me off this heist you're planning?"

"I wish I could. Believe me, Ms. Bennett, when I say that I do this for the benefit of us all."

Bonnie scoffed. "Yeah, right."

He chuckled softly, bringing out his handkerchief to dab at his face. Once again, Bonnie stared. It was the first time she'd seen him use it to wipe off something besides blood.

It took her a moment to realize she should look away. She stared at the wide expanse of land and probed her senses. She was almost startled to find him at once. Wherever he had gone to, he was now back in the Compound.

She sneaked a glance at Elijah. The handkerchief was back in his breast-pocket; and he looked generally more composed. She was torn between asking him what the Gemini Praetor was doing in New Orleans or finding more about his mysterious sister.

"I always thought that your brother Finn was the oldest," she said, making up her mind.

"So did we, until recently."

"So … what's Freya's story?"

Elijah smiled. "Perhaps some other time, I'll share." At Bonnie's irate face, he raised a placating hand. "It's the kind of story I'd like to tell you, perhaps over dinner, before you leave the city?"

Bonnie was tempted to say no at once – her curiosity wasn't worth keeping prolonged isolated company with Elijah Mikaelson. But on the other hand, knowledge was power. And it would be worthwhile to find out if his sister and the Gemini Praetor were any kind of item. Not for any personal reasons, of course, just to understand how alliances lay. How exactly were these treaties held in place, anyway?

"Besides, Officer Donovan would probably not appreciate me monopolizing you for much longer."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. The way things stood between her and Matt now, she sincerely doubted that. "Was anything you told him about Caroline and the Regent even true?"

"Of course. Though I failed to add that I tempted Caroline with the idea that she could get information about Klaus from the Regent." At Bonnie's look, he elaborated. "I made it very clear to her that I meant you no harm. I just needed a private audience. I might have given her the impression that I wanted to talk about Elena."

Elijah always had a soft spot for Elena. Bonnie would have been less surprised if this conversation had been about her.

"How's Elena anyway?" he asked. "I haven't seen her in almost a year."

"Three years, you mean?" Bonnie corrected. "When your family left."

"Pardon. I meant that _you_ haven't seen her in a year, have you? Since your time in Europe?"

Bonnie tensed. "If you're trying to get information from me about Elena's whereabouts, then save it. I don't know where she is and even if I did, you're the last person I'd ever tell."

Elijah shook his head ruefully. "I wish her absolutely no harm. All I'll ever ask you of Elena is to send her my heartfelt regards." A shadow fell over his face. "In many ways, she and my Katerina were much alike. Before she spent five hundred years running from a man determined to punish her for not conceding to be his victim," – his voice cracked – "and from my anger for not putting her faith in her would-be-murderer's brother, Katerina was an innocent, hopeful girl, not unlike your Elena." He sighed heavily. "Yet Elena rose above her circumstances and Katerina… did not. Because she lacked the choices your friend had… or because she lacked the ability to make the same choices. We will never know…" He bowed his head. " _Requiescat in pace_ , Katerina."

The last words were whispered faintly. Bonnie swallowed and looked away. Something pinged her subconscious then – and she knew by now what it meant. He wasn't just here, he was near. She swiveled around to see when –

Faster than she could blink, Elijah loomed above her, barely an inch between his body and hers, his cold hands on her neck. She'd have screamed if she hadn't completely lost her breath. For a heart-stopping moment, she thought she had miscalculated. Been duped. He hadn't lured her friends away, to get her alone for some ridiculous chit-chat about Katherine's last moments. That had just been a ploy to lull her into letting her guard down so he could kill her. The Augustine didn't want the presence of a Bennett witch at their Ceremony. They wanted her still-beating heart…

His cold lips brushed against her cheeks. First the left. Then the right. His hands lifted from her neck slowly. He stepped back.

Even then it took a moment for her heart to stop racing, for the momentary panic to abate. Then she felt hot and burning on her back, the sensation of not being alone – and her fear left her.

She didn't even need to turn to know what – who – it was.

"It was a pleasure having you for dinner, Ms. Bennett," Elijah said softly. He looked over her shoulder. "She is all yours, Praetor."

He smiled that same creepily speculative smile he had worn during dinner. Then he turned on his heel and disappeared into the night.

* * *

Kai and Freya had split up. She, to find her brother, and he, to find Bonnie. Of course, that's not what he told himself when he followed that inexplicable pull that connected him to her. He told himself he wanted to know exactly where she was so he could know exactly where to avoid.

But then he had found himself witnessing that cozy little one-on-one; and the even cozier embrace they shared at the end and he had been… curious.

And by curious, he meant he had felt like porting behind the Original and snapping his neck.

"Hope I'm not interrupting," he blatantly lied as he came to stand beside a column a few meters from her.

She bristled, elegant spine straightening with indignation. "Clearly, you're not." She angled her chin towards Elijah's departing back.

Kai looked, too, remembering, too late, that he needed the man for the Ghiaccis downstairs. Then he glanced at Bonnie Bennett. She was already watching him, her eyes studying his form, then lifting to stare at the top of his head, reminding him that it was still wet from earlier. Her face was unreadable. Caught staring, a little frown line formed between her eyes and she looked away from him.

She didn't walk away, though.

Kai knew he wasn't going anywhere.

"Enjoying the fresh air? Couple hours inside a thousand-year-old structure with a dubious building inspection log would do that to you."

To his surprise, rather than ignore him as he half-expected, she said quietly, "I'm waiting for my ride."

His eyebrows raised at that.

Why was she alone? Where both her friends so useless that they couldn't stick by her side for a few hours and had left her by herself in this house, to be mauled by random Originals? His newfound respect for Caroline Forbes took a sharp dive. As for the mundane, he couldn't sink any lower in Kai's estimation.

He didn't need to wonder who had draped that jacket on her. Not Elijah, who probably slept in his dark blue suit. Not Vincent whose clothes had their own names. No, this cheap black thing that hung over her body practically screamed underpaid mundane cop.

Kai scowled, remembering how she had been angry over the stupid quarrel with her stupider friend, and locked his fingers together so he won't give in to temptation to yank off the offending material, pause for a long moment to drink in the sight of her bare shoulders, glistening bronze in the moonlight, and then cloak her with something more befitting – his own jacket, for starters.

His eyes slipped down to her right hand clutching the lapels together, traced the familiar dark band that inked her wrist, then went back to her face. Her delicate profile looked as strained as he felt.

He wondered if she was feeling half the cock-screw of emotions working through him now. Or if his presence here merely irritated her.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you up to?"

They spoke at the same time. Paused at the same time.

Then she covered her face with one of her small hands, and shoulders started shaking. Kai stared, took a moment to realize what she was doing, and then let out a surprised laugh.

She slid her hands halfway down her face, and he could see her eyes shining. "What a pair of –" Bonnie managed that much, before she lost her breath to an attack of the giggles.

"–busy bodies," he finished with a snort. He felt light-headed and discretely leaned against the column beside him for support.

For a long moment, they just stood there – Bonnie still not looking at him while all he could see was her – and acted like normal people, sharing an accidental joke.

The moment passed. She wiped her face discreetly, and wrapped her jacket closely, like armor. He dug his hands deep in his pockets, so that he wouldn't do it for her, and tried not to look too desperately in her direction.

"OK," she said seriously but her eyes were still shining so maybe the humor was not quite done. "You go first."

He snorted softly at her imperious demand. To say she had no business with highly confidential Gemini business was a gross understatement. It was bad enough that the Mikaelsons were irretrievably involved in the situation with the Ghiaccis. And even though she would probably argue that the connection between the exiles and the heretics made it her concern, she'd still be wrong.

He really had no obligation – and no business – sharing anything with her.

"The Mikaelsons are keeping three Gemini witches prisoners." When her head whipped around, he laughed, raising his hands. "Hold onto that white hat, cowgirl. This isn't a rescue mission."

"Like I was offering," she said, rolling her eyes before she looked away.

 _Yeah right_. But he knew better than to say that out loud. Not with their history. "They are well within their rights, for a change. The witches are exiles." He noticed the way she started, her eyes widening. "The Coven isn't obligated to help them out of their mess; and take my word for it, these people are _not_ the good guys here. If anything, they're getting off easy. Klaus Mikaelson would have murdered them on sight if he'd been here when they turned up."

"So why are _you_ here?"

He ran a tired hand through his damp hair. For some reason, that caught her attention, her eyes lingering at the top of his head even after his hand had fallen to his side. "I'm looking for information." He raised his hand as she opened her mouth to ask another question. "Your turn."

"We're taking turns, huh?" she mused.

A rush of heat went south immediately at the unintended innuendo. Once again, he felt light-headed.

Thankfully, she missed it, her face still pensive.

"I need a favor from the Mikaelsons," she said finally.

"Which one?" She hesitated, and he tsked. "Easy enough to guess, Bon. Not Freya. She's a recent addition and there's nothing you'll ever need from her witchy-wise that you can't do yourself and better." He felt a flare of satisfaction when she blushed at that. It hadn't been intended as a compliment – just a statement of fact – but it certainly delighted him that he could at least have that effect on her. She was no longer the same woman who immediately distrusted anything nice he had to say about her. Now he said nice things to her, and her face went all soft and rosy.

She had turned to look at him, her eyebrows rising and he realized with a flush, that he had stopped talking to just stare at her.

"So it's the _Originals_ you came for," he went on quickly. "Looking to recruit something closer to the top of the food chain to fight your heretics?"

" _Your_ heretics, you mean," Bonnie snapped. Some of the softness leached away.

His mouth twisted. "You're in good company. That appears to be the popular opinion here." He rubbed his throat.

Her face softened again, this time with concern. "How's your neck?" she asked gently.

"Seen worse," he said gamely, even as he soaked up her kindness like a sponge. "You should have seen the other guy. Thanks for the rescue, earlier," he added.

She shrugged and looked away, but not before he saw another flush of pink coating her cheeks. _God_. If she kept doing that, then no one could blame him for reaching over to cup her face in his hands and –

He dug his fists harder into his pockets, felt his knuckles pop, and made himself look at something else – the ground. Her ridiculous shoes. The jacket swamped her but he could see a few inches of skin, delicate ankles. He sighed.

"You're not in the least bit worried in this place, are you?" Bonnie mused.

"Depends on what you're referring to. Was I worried about the kind of meat I was served in a house that's called The _Abattoir_? Extremely."

Oh my goodness, had he just got two giggles from Bonnie Bennett in the space of minutes?

He felt surreal.

"Worried about the Mikaelsons." Her voice was still lilting with amusement. "Your so-called _Nefandus Bestia_. You literally just got attacked by one a while ago and yet you're back."

' _Back' huh?_ _Subtle, Bonnie, but you're not going to catch me out that easily._ "You should have been here for the 'team building' workshops Klaus and I did last year. This was nothing."

Her lingo hadn't escape him. It was the last thing he expected to hear Bonnie Bennett, of all people, use to refer to vampires; and he wondered where she had picked that up from.

"I've seen Rebekah Mikaelson string up D… a vampire and torture him for days because he was mean to her. Don't underestimate her."

 _D–?_ Kai tried to choke back a snicker, suddenly feeling a surge of affection towards his attempted murderess. Judging by the wry glance Bonnie shot his way, he didn't quite succeed in hiding his amusement.

"Thanks for your concern," he said sincerely. "But that's what treaties are for. Mutually assured destruction."

"And what does your treaty with the Mikaelsons involve? Magic for protection? The secrets of the Gemini for Klaus's blood? Betrothals?"

A brief image of Liv and Finn Mikaelson tying the knot crossed through Kai's head and he almost laughed out loud. It would take less than the honeymoon for both parties to realise that suggesting the union was the equivalent of an act of war.

"Think of it more like symbiosis. Witches, vampires, werewolves, faeries… If we spent less time warring each other and more time working together, we might actually gain more ground."

"I still can't wrap my head around your coven forming treaties with the _Originals_. With vampires of any nature."

Neither could the Council, he thought with a grimace. Technically, the coven's treaty was with Freya Mikaelson, witch and Elder of her family, not with her vampire siblings.

"I won't pretend that prejudices in my coven don't still exist but we're evolving." Or rather he was making them evolve, which he felt was the same thing. "Not all vampires are mindless predators. Not all witches are altruistic balance-keepers. Rebekah's hostess manners might need work but she was reacting with grief for a dead friend. You can't get more relatable than that."

Her eyes widened with astonishment and he felt a sharp pang of – gratification – dejection? It was nice to amaze her with the fruits of his hard-won empathy but fuck it, how long would she still expect to see that monster from years ago?

On the other hand, had he given her any reason not to? He remembered their meeting in Jo's house. It was barely a week ago but it felt like an eternity. It was the first time in a year that they'd been face to face. She had wanted his help, had been desperate for it. And both times he had turned her down flat, with no explanations. He had left her with the impression that he hated her so much that he won't do his job. Jo had warned him and he hadn't listened.

Could he blame her for never quite _seeing_ him, as he was now?

Something nagged at him suddenly. "The girl Rebekah mentioned… the one she was so upset about? April Young? You told me about her in Portland, right?

Her face tightened, no doubt remembering that conversation as well. "She was the heretics' first victim."

"She and her boyfriend, Ronnie Marten."

"Y-yes…" Her voice trailed off, something like realization crossing over her face.

"You sounded like you knew the girl pretty well but what about the boy? Were you close, too?"

"No, he went to Grove Hill High… I think he was a linebacker for the team? Just an everyday boy-next-door kid. They made a cute couple." Her voice caught. "His parents were devastated. They buried April, as well."

It took him a second to realize why. "She had no family," he said heavily.

Bonnie was blinking rapidly, one hand half-covering her face. "Her mom died before she was 12. Her dad got duped into killing himself and now… the entire Young family is wiped from existence."

His stomach churned with guilt.

It had been a year. And in his head, he knew the truth – that he wasn't ever going to forget, that he _shouldn't_ ever be allowed to forget. But life did this tricky thing with memories, where they'd fade, and his heart would fool him into thinking that everything was OK now. He had made restitution. He was making amends. Making himself worthy. Now he could move on, couldn't he? Could even try for a bit of happiness.

Then bam! Something would remind him that nope, he was an unmitigated asshole and a ruiner of lives and he didn't deserve diddly squat.

He exhaled sharply, pushed his morose thoughts away. They'd be back in time to give him a beating but now he needed – as selfish as it seemed – to enjoy this. "Betcha you're wishing I didn't have that pesky link or you'd have let Rebekah finish the job?" he half-joked.

"Why else do you think I rushed to help?" She snipped.

He scoffed and covered his mouth with a hand. "White hat," he coughed. Loudly. He couldn't help it. She practically set herself up.

She scowled at that, which was an improvement over being weepy. "You already had it under control anyway. Were you even in any danger?" she accused.

He shrugged. "I might have been." He ducked his head so he could look at her face through his lashes. "You saved my life back there."

She snorted. "Yeah, right." But it almost sounded fond. Amusement and exasperation danced over her face.

For a fraction of a heartbeat, he felt that coil inside him that magnified whenever he was near Bonnie Bennett loosen; he was almost at peace. Not completely though. That would have been impossible. In fact, had he ever been around this woman and not felt like exploding?

A memory flitted through his head then – her head on his chest, feeling her breath soft against his skin. That hotel room a year ago.

Yeah. OK, that time.

Her face had tightened again, and she had gone back to looking away from him. He wondered what had been on his own face that had given him away. He studied her profile with some resentment. A bit hard on the neck, wasn't it, holding conversations like this? How nice that she only seemed to reserve this pose for him, in her clearly hell-bent resolve never to look him the eye for longer than a few seconds. After all, she hadn't had any reservations getting up close and personal with Elijah Mikaelson a while ago. How flattering that she considered Kai far more deadly than a millennium-old vampire.

"So how is an Original going to kill a heretic?" He asked harshly.

Her eyes narrowed, clearly picking up his sudden mood swing. "Tell me more about these exiles you're interrogating," she countered.

He snorted. "I think I told you plenty already. You're the one playing your cards close to your chest."

"I asked; you answered. You asked; I answered. It's your turn now."

"Now isn't this familiar? I bare my soul while you remain the oyster." Familiar bitterness crept into his voice.

Familiar shutters fell over her face.

In the blink of an eye, the camaraderie of a moment ago had mutated to animosity.

What else was new?

She walked over to sit down on one of the porch seats and he knew that was his cue. The conversation was over. He had his own stuff to do anyway. There was an Original to track down and rogue witches to interrogate.

But he stood his ground, stubbornly. Her presence here ate at him, and not just because of his hyper-sensitivity to her, the way her proximity tortured him. More urgently, he needed to know what kind of danger she was about to waltz herself into. Because whatever she wanted of Elijah Mikaelson, she wasn't getting it for free.

Elijah Mikaelson, the ancient vampire with the reputation of literally razing down cities to preserve his family, and Bonnie Bennett, a powerful witch with a propensity for martyrdom.

A horrific match made in Kai's personal Hell.

His eyes rested on her wrist, his chest twisting with both possessiveness and avarice at that black band. He had been mad enough to latch _that_ on her, hadn't he? It only followed that he'd take some responsibility over how she might end up using it.

He was opening his mouth when the others showed up.

* * *

"Bonnie! Sorry to keep you waiting for so… Oh." Caroline's high-pitched greeting ended abruptly as she took in the person standing beside her friend.

"Are you OK, Bonnie?" Matt asked brusquely.

Bonnie took her time to face them, watching instead as the shutters fell over Kai's face. Her heart sank with disappointment. At him.

But mostly at herself.

She turned around and watched her friends approach her. Caroline looked like someone who wasn't sure if she was interrupting something. Matt looked like someone who was sure – and was determined to.

Bonnie had never been so unhappy to see either of them.

Along with them came Vincent Griffin, Regent of the Nine Covens. He smiled at Bonnie. "I'm glad I caught you, Ms. Bennett." Then he glanced up at Kai. "Praetor, still here?"

Kai shrugged, turning from Bonnie, but not – she noticed gratefully – completely leaving her side. "Not quite finished my business. And you?"

"I was on my way until I saw Ms. Bennett here…" He smiled at her. "Have a few minutes to spare?"

First Elijah. Then Kai. Now Vincent Griffin. She was going to need a pocketbook to keep up with all these impromptu confabs!

"Bonnie's leaving," Kai said abruptly.

His authoritative tone immediately got her back up. "I am?" Bonnie asked with some asperity.

"I'm beat myself," Matt declared pointedly.

Bonnie looked from one to another with equal dislike. How lovely to be reminded that regardless of personal differences, men could always find common ground in telling a woman what to do.

"You can go on, Matt," she said glibly. "Caroline and I will stay for a while longer."

A pair of angry faces glowered at her.

Caroline was biting back a smile; and Vincent Griffin's eyes twinkled as he stretched his hand out to her.

"A few moments, I promise," he said, his voice lilting with suppressed laughter. Near her, Kai's body was one straight, angry line.

It provoked Bonnie.

She took Vincent's hand and let him pull her to her feet. "We can take as long as you want." She stepped close to him, near enough to feel the immense power radiating out of him, and slipped her hand up his arm until her fingers hooked around his elbow. Her bangles shifted, covering her brand and it seemed appropriate. "All night if need be."

Matt made a strangled sound in his throat. Caroline choked back a laugh – or a scream. Bonnie ignored them; her eyes were fixed on the half-amused, half-alarmed expression on Vincent Griffin's face but her attentiveness was on the man standing behind her, boring bullet-holes in her back.

 _Any angrier_ , she thought hysterically, _and he'll be growling_.

The faint buzzing of a phone was a welcome relief to the incredible tension that had suddenly built up in the air. With an apologetic smile, the Regent dropped her hand to reach into his jacket pocket. "Griffin," he said smoothly as he stepped away.

It was a short conversation, and Bonnie – whose eyes stayed on him because between Matt's disapproval, Caroline's mirth and Kai's anger, there was no safe place to look – watched as his smile turned downwards.

He switched off the phone and she already knew what he was going to say. "I'm sorry, Ms. Bennett. I have a little emergency… Perhaps some other time?" He looked anxious. "You won't be leaving New Orleans soon, would you? There are a lot of things I would like to discuss with Sheila Bennett's grand-daughter."

"You knew my grand-mother?" Bonnie asked, surprised, although by now she should be used to this.

"Only by reputation. Rumor has it that you are her chosen heir. And if the other rumors are true, you've certainly more than lived up to her expectations."

Bonnie felt her face warm. "My family is not a coven, Mr. Griffin. We don't have heirs or rulers."

"Please call me Vincent. There is truth in what you say, but maybe not the way you understand it. The Bennetts are not a coven, no. You're more like a dynasty."

"Of what?"

A small smile flickered over his face. "Save me a dance at the Inauguration Ball. We will have a lot to talk about then." He bowed slightly, and then looked over her shoulder. "Praetor? You will want to come along for this."

"I will?" Kai said, his voice icy.

Vincent's mouth twitched. A short silent conversation seemed to pass between the two men. Then Kai conceded. He walked past her without looking back, his heat brushing against her, making her skin break out into goosebumps. She clutched Matt's jacket tightly.

Vincent smiled slightly, nodded in turn to the Mystic Falls guests and followed Kai. He caught up with the other man, and they walked side by side into the house. Bonnie followed him with her eyes. The dim hallway light reflected off the zig-zag of white in his – ridiculously spiky, wet, and she'd admit it, _sexy_ – hair. It was the last thing she glimpsed before both men faded into the darkness.

Yet in her mind's eye, she could still track Kai as he moved further and further away from her, her awareness of him like a cord stretching thinner and thinner with every passing second.

"Come on, Bonnie!"

With a start, she realized that her friends were calling from the car. While she had stood there, gaping dreamily after Kai Parker like an idiot, Caroline had got into the front seat and Matt stood by the back door, holding it open for her. Mumbling some gibberish to save face, she bundled herself inside. She was reaching for the door when Matt slammed it shut. Hard.

"Hey!"

"Sorry," he said insincerely as he got into the car.

That did it! "What the hell, Matt? What's your-"

"You won't _believe_ what the Regent told us about the Mikaelsons!" Caroline cried, turning around her seat to stare at Bonnie with gossip-bright eyes.

Gossip-bright with a tint of please-stave-off-this-fight-for-when-I'm-not-here-glow. Apparently, she'd got over her own disagreement with Matt from earlier and was trying to play the Neutral Party.

Well, Bonnie thought as she glared at Matt's mutinous face through the rear-view mirror, she wasn't going to be distracted –

"Do you know that Freya resurrected Finn and Kol?"

OK, that could do it.

"What?" Bonnie yelped. "How's that possible? They died as vampires on the Other Side. They should have been sucked away with everyone else."

"Apparently, they caught the same break that you and Damon had. Esther Mikaelson made a deal for her dead children with the witches here. When the Other Side collapsed, they were ported into the NOLA Ancestral Plane. A bunch of stuff happened that Vincent clearly didn't want to go into, but Freya eventually got Finn and Kol into their Original bodies. They've been walking and talking with the rest of humanity for over a year now."

They were driving past the main gates now. Bonnie sat at the edge of her seat, and stretched her senses out.

"Any idea if Stefan knew this?" Matt asked.

Caroline looked at him, her face sad. "I'd like to think that if he did he would have mentioned it to _me_. But I'd be lying to myself."

"Awww, Care…"

Caroline shrugged. She turned back to Bonnie. "Klaus didn't like that. Apparently, he's still happiest with his family when they're in coffins." She scoffed but her voice was fond. "He and Freya clashed over that, amongst other things. At first he was over the moon, to find their long-lost sister. A witch, too. You know how Klaus loves his witches."

Bonnie stared hard into the darkness as the car wound past the wrought-iron gate that encircled the Compound.

"Where did this new witch sister turn up from? Was she also in some spelled coffin like Esther?"

"I might as well have been pulling teeth for all the intel he gave me on _that_. But I could read between the lines. Freya turned out to be every bit as badass and bossy as Esther and she wasn't willing to let Klaus run things the way Elijah did, the two were constantly at each other's throats. I'm not going to lie, she gives me the creeps but I still would have paid good money to see someone put Klaus in his place."

"Mmm… hmm…"

"Then the last straw was when Kai Parker" – she paused when Bonnie looked sharply at her.

"Go on," Matt said through gritted teeth.

Caroline's eyes slanted warily from one friend to another. "Well," she continued slowly, "when the _Gemini_ wanted to form a treaty with the NOLA factions, Klaus point-blank refused. He thought it was going to limit his powers. Freya had to…" She mimed slamming a door and throwing away a key. "And that's why we won't be seeing him anytime in the near future."

"Kai threw Klaus Mikaelson in a Prison World?" Matt sounded grudgingly impressed.

"I dunno… But wherever he is, he's not coming back soon." Distracted as she was, Bonnie picked up on the touch of mingled sadness and relief in Caroline's voice.

"So let me understand this… He puts Klaus in a Prison World to get his precious treaty signed, but his own heretics are too trivial for him to be bothered with?"

"Of course, you'd see it that way, Matt," Caroline snapped, exasperated.

They started bickering, speaking around a topic that Bonnie didn't fully follow. Probably because she wasn't trying to; and she was no longer in the mood to fight with Matt.

She had known the instant she stopped feeling his presence; the moment their connection, stretched thin through magical space and time, severed.

She slumped back to her seat.

Why was he really in New Orleans? Would she ever completely know? Probably not. Earlier, he had started to confide in her. Had told her a great deal more than he had to, considering everything. But when he had asked her for the same, she couldn't reciprocate. Yes, she and her friends had all agreed back in Mystic Falls that they won't share their plan to trap the heretics via Original compulsion with anyone outside the group and especially the Gemini. Even Tyler had had to be excluded. But the truth was that Bonnie hadn't even been thinking of that when she clammed up.

Kai's perceptiveness was uncanny. Far too many times, he had easily pried apart the onion skins of her life with very little information. Where he was concerned, her self-defensiveness was hard-worn and instinctive.

Even if later – like now – she came to regret it.

She sighed.

"Alright there, Bon?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah," she said quietly, staring into the passing darkness. "I'm fine."

* * *

Elijah's sniffed delicately, his nostrils flaring. "I detect the scent of sage."

Kai had got to his feet as the man stepped into the drawing room, and now he walked across to where he stood. "Shouldn't you be used to the unfortunate downsides of hyper-awareness by now? Thanks for showing up eventually. I've only been waiting for almost half an hour."

Elijah brushed away invisible lint from his suit sleeves. "That should have given you, my sister and the Regent just enough time to have your private meeting. Witch business, I suppose?"

"I hear a question there, Elijah, and the answer is 'Mind your own business'."

Elijah's eyes narrowed but perhaps the stated vampiric awareness clued him in that Kai wasn't in a good mood, and he had the good sense to hold his peace.

Kai had felt it when that invisible cord snap. Felt it when Bonnie slipped out of his reach. It was ridiculous how bereft it left him feeling, considering that a few hours ago he hadn't even known she was here. But where Bonnie was concerned, he had long learnt that logic played no role in his emotions. Between that and the talk he had with Vincent and Freya, Kai was in a black mood.

They walked in silence through the building, following roughly the same route that Freya had taken earlier when she led him to the dungeons.

"I didn't realize you were more than casually acquainted with Bonnie Bennett," Elijah remarked.

Kai turned his head slowly, gave the other man a level gaze. Was he for real?

"How exactly does she expect you to kill the heretics? No, scratch that. What I want to know is what the fuck you're asking her in exchange for your help."

"I also hear a question there, Praetor, and the answer is 'Mind your own business'."

"Heretics business is Gemini business is my business," Kai said through gritted teeth. _And for the record, dumbass, sarcasm is implied. You can't say you 'hear' a question that I actually said out loud!_

"You can take it up with my sister but I am quite certain that your treaty does not give you the right to poke into the private affairs between me and my old friends from Virginia."

The combination of 'private', 'affairs' and 'friends' was either an unfortunate coincidence or a deliberate attempt to make Kai's blood boil. For the second time that evening, Kai weighed the pros and cons of obliterating Elijah Mikaelson from existence.

They reached the trap door that led to the dungeons. Elijah paused.

"You should hear your own heart, Praetor. It's like a freight train racing off a cliff. And if you grind your teeth any harder, I might need to give you the number of a dentist I once fed from. Would you rather do this with Rebekah? Perhaps you'll find her company more agreeable?"

"Shut up and get on with it," Kai snapped.

Elijah opened the door with a smirk. As he descended, he murmured, "And they call us vampires over-emotional…"

* * *

Damon called as they were approaching the hotel. He and Stefan were at the Grill. Bonnie started telling him about Elijah's demand, when he cut her off.

"That is _great_ news about _Portland_ , B. We're keeping our fingers crossed for you and the old _witches_."

She and the others exchanged confused glances.

"Damon… are you alone?"

"Depends on what you mean by alone. It's a slow night in the Grill and the service here is worse than usual. We're sharing drinks with little Miss Parker and she'd like a word or two."

"Liv? Is she still in town?"

"Hello, Miss Bennett."

Bonnie froze. This time around, she recognized the voice at once.

"Georgiana Parker," she said quietly.

Caroline's head swiveled around so fast that Bonnie winced. Matt was about to turn around, when he realized he was driving, and eyed Bonnie frantically through the rear view mirror.

Bonnie put on the call on speaker.

"Flattered that you remember me," the cool, clipped voice filled the car.

"How could I forget?" Bonnie asked, staring at Caroline's wide-eyed face. "Our landlord's been asking where to send the bill for the broken window."

"The window…? Ha ha. Amusing." She sounded anything but. "Your manner of speech in this time still requires some accommodation on my part."

"I can forward you some urban lingo websites. But first… What the heck are you doing with my friends?"

"Keeping each other company. Fret not. The two Salvatore gentlemen are not in any danger, at least not from my person. They found me in solitude at the local tavern, and generously offered me free liquor and companionship. As you should have realized, they and I have a great deal in common. We share the same mother."

Lily Salvatore's pale fanged face flashed though Bonnie's head, making her shudder. "I can arrange for you to join her, anytime," she whispered.

"That is precisely what I desire."

" _W-what_?" Bonnie stuttered. Was this another Silas situation? A Big Bad with a death wish? "You want to d–?"

"I wish to do commerce with you, Miss. Bennett. In exchange for complete access to your Expression magic, my brother and I shall depart from your home town and never be heard or seen again."

Matt braked too hard as he pulled into the parking slot but neither girl cautioned him, both were also reeling with shock.

"And then what?" Bonnie demanded, remembering a conversation with a certain coven leader in Portland. "Go somewhere else to be predators?"

"In contradiction to what you have assumed of us, my brother and I have no intention of drawing the ire of the Gemini upon our heads. We are already uncomfortably conscious of the proximity of the Councilor. Indeed, it baffles one why the Praetor has withheld from a full offensive for this long–"

"Tell us about it," Matt grumbled, _sotto voce_.

" – but that is a question of when, not if. We have no intention of remaining here when that event takes place. The Gemini are not without limits on their resources. If we moved to somewhere more peaceably, and gave them no cause to pursue us, I believe that they shall leave us be."

Caroline snickered, incredulous. " _They_ leave _you_ be? That's some seriously warped reasoning you have going on, lady," she whispered.

Of course, the heretic's ears picked that up. "Ms Forbes, I do not comprehend that speech nor do I care to. What is of import to me is your decision regarding my proposition. Yield unto us your Expression, Bonnie Bennett and we cease to be a predicament."

"I will give it to you-" Bonnie ignored the rapidly shaking heads of Matt and Caroline "- only if I know what you need it for."

Georgiana laughed sharply. "My dear Miss Bennett, are you obtuse? I must say you have not quite lived up to the reputation I had been impressed upon about you."

"Just answer the question," Bonnie snapped. _Bitch_.

"I already did. You failed to pay attention. Your ancestor's magic is the only thing powerful enough to break through planes of existence. It was the same magic that created the Other Side and every other dimensional plane had been in imitation of that magic. Thus, it has the potential to transcend dimensional borders. If harnessed properly, it could be a means of traveling into Worlds without the aids of their conventional gateways."

Bonnie's heart thumped. "So you want me to use Expression… to free…"

"My mother." For the first time, something like emotion seeped into the heretic's voice. "Aid me in the liberation of my mother and I promise you on her own beloved, sacred head, that our family will never bother you or yours again."

Caroline was staring so hard now that she had stopped blinking. Matt's eyes were almost jumping out of his head.

Bonnie swallowed hard. "I-I need to think about it."

"You have three daybreaks as the duration of your consideration. Beyond that, or in the event you respond unfavorably, I shall murder someone you hold affection for. Three daybreaks, Miss Bennett and no more."

There was a long pause. Then Damon's unimpressed voice filtered through the speaker.

"You could have just said 72 hours, weirdo. Sounds a hella lot more precise. Especially when you factor in time zones and daylight saving time. You got the memo, BonBon?"

Bonnie swallowed. "Yeah."

"That's it?" Matt asked. "They just want Lily? What about the witches? The ritual?"

"How the heck would I know, Deputy Doony? Stefan and I were just minding our business here, and by the way, the service sucks, you need to hire some new people–"

"Ask her, Damon!"

"The bitch's gone. We got word that she was in the Grill, we came here to keep an eye on things, and she called us over. For the record: there were no drinks offered. Like I'd waste good money on that basket of crazy. Although, you know what they say: the crazy ones have the best se– hey, Stefan!"

"Matt." It was Stefan speaking now. "Maybe the list of names wasn't a Kill List. Maybe it was what Liv said –Douglas Parkinson compiling a list of witches in exile. She's left town by the way, took off this morning. And according to Tyler, no new information about this yet. It was a nice theory but it's looking more and more like the simple explanation is the only explanation."

"Better sleuthing next time, Deputy Doony!" Damon's voice called.

"Shut up," Bonnie said, reflexively.

"What did Elijah want?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie told him then about the Original's demand. She kept her narration brief, and omitted all the extraneous details about the dinner and the guests. Matt's and Caroline's eyes were heavy on her, no doubt noticing her conspicuous lack of mention of the Gemini presence in New Orleans – but to her relief, they said nothing.

When she was done, one of the brothers let out a low whistle.

"The Augustine is rebranding?" Damon sounded amused.

"Damon…" Bonnie warned.

"Don't _Damon_ me. I'm just curious, wondering how that's even possible, considering, you know…"

"Your generational mass-murdering?" his brother said drolly. "Clearly, you weren't as thorough as you'd like."

"I'd better get right on fixing that then."

The three in the car swapped worried gazes. "Damon, this isn't the time or place for you to do anything rash," Bonnie warned.

"Oh come on, Bon," he said glibly. "I was just pulling your legs. You guys are all so easy. I'm a retired psychopath, remember?"

"Stefan," Caroline pleaded.

The loud sigh on the other side of the call was clearly from the younger Salvatore. "I'll keep him in line, guys. I… I'll try."

"Now you've got Steffie on my case, can we move onto the important thing? Whatcha gonna do about Elijah's indecent proposal, witchy?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Caroline asked.

"Obvious to you, Barbie. I say the Devil you know is better than the heretic you don't…"

"You want Bonnie to hand this weapon to them and risk–"

"Risk what? 'I'll pay you Tuesday for a burger today.' If the Mikaelsons use it to start a war ten days, ten months, ten years from now… we'll figure it out."

"Why are we even considering this?" Caroline insisted. "If all they want is Expression to free Lily… we can do that, right? I mean, she's not my favorite person, but she only went crazy because she missed her family. And they're going crazy because they miss her. If anyone can relate with that, it's me," she finished quietly.

"I'm with Care," Matt said, raising his voice. "I'm not keen on Bonnie being used to steal anything from the Augustine."

"If we bring the crazy family together and we can finally have some peace, it seems fair to me," Caroline insisted. "Heck, it almost sounds too good to be true."

"If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is, Caroline," Stefan said sternly.

Her eyes narrowed. "Really, Stefan? You want to patronize me now?"

"I wasn't–"

"This is Bonnie's decision anyway. She's the one with Expression. She gets to decide what to do with it."

Stefan was right. It was too good to be true.

Because Lily Salvatore was dead.

Only Caroline and Matt didn't know that. Only a few people on this side of the veil knew that truth. For all sorts of frivolous reasons, they had kept it a secret for a year. But now, with the heretics revealing finding Lily as their motivation…

Suddenly that secret had become deadly.

* * *

 _June 2013_

 _Mystic Falls_

Later, Kai would remember that night in flashes of color. Black, white, blue and red.

Lots and lots of red.

The red of Bonnie's blood wasting on that dirty floor and soaking through his shirt. The red of Lily Salvatore's veiny heart, still throbbing in her son's fist. The red of Stefan Salvatore's gut blood from where Kai had staked it, pinning the man into the ground.

But also the red of the ambulance as he rushed through the ER. The red of the flashing lights as the orderlies tried to pin him down, mistaking the blood on him for his own, and thinking he was a patient. The red of Jo's cheeks as she fought her way through the confusion before he hurt too many people, and led her brother to Bonnie's private ward.

The red of the blood feeding her body through tubes. The glint of red in her black hair where it lay spread over her pillow, her face – no longer so deathly pale – calm and peaceful under the sedation Jo explained she was under.

That's when the blue came in. The blue of his sister's scrubs, Elena Gilbert's shirt as she lay with her head on Bonnie's bed, her fingers entwined with Bonnie's despite the tubes and wires that wanted to bury her. The tiny blue flowers of Bonnie's hospital gown.

Jo said something to him as he stood by her window, his hands pressed against the glass and staring, drinking in the sight of her like a man dying of thirst, looking at an oasis. Out of his reach but just the fact that it was there… He couldn't hear and would never remember what his sister said then; and after a while Jo left, leaving him with Bonnie.

He had no idea how long he stood there, watching her, waiting for her. The hospital staff that passed by, stared at him curiously but let him be; maybe because Jo had explained his presence, or maybe they took one look at his blood-stained clothes and tormented face and knew better.

Some stood beside him, and stared to. And through the daze in his head, he heard words like ' _medical miracle'_ , ' _100% neural recovery? I don't believe it!_ ', ' _know for sure when she wakes up_ ', ' _why does Gilbert get to stay? She's not even an intern!_ ' …

At some point in time, Jo came to give him a clean shirt and water.

"Go home, Kai."

He blinked at her. "What?" His voice sounded scratchy in his ears, as if he hadn't used it in a long time.

She rolled her eyes. "You've been here for three hours. You're weirding out the interns."

He wanted to tell her not to bother, that her interns were idiots who would not make it past the first year. But his throat was too thick and for one of the rare times in his life, words were scarce.

Three hours! He had had no idea. He took a deep breath. There was a lump the size of a rock lodged in his throat. "When will she…?"

"Not before morning, maybe not until noon." His sister's voice was kind. "I'll call you the moment she wakes up. You can come and see her yourself."

Her kindness almost undid him. Warmth seeped into him as he felt, for the first time in decades, a sense of almost amiability between him and his sister. He blinked hard, feeling the stupid tears he thought he'd mastered by now, threaten.

If she noticed it, she pretended not to see. She walked into the ward, brushing his shoulder slightly, almost comfortingly as she did so. He watched her check Bonnie's monitors, read her blood pressure and pulse. He watched the caring way Jo brushed back Bonnie's hair. Watched the gentle way she touched Elena's shoulder, trying to wake the girl, then deciding to leave her alone.

By the time she was out with her clipboard, he had pulled himself together somewhat.

"Still here?" she asked, one eyebrow up.

He cleared his throat. "Call me when she wakes?"

Jo nodded.

He nodded too. "OK, then… I'll…" He ran a tired hand through his hair, then cringed when he realized he had just smeared his hair with blood. "OK."

He was turning to leave when his sister called him. "Kai?"

He spun around. "What?"

She was looking at him with her brows furrowed, her face scrunched with something between pity and wonder. "What did you…" She checked herself.

"What?" he demanded.

Jo looked hesitant, then she squared her shoulders. "Thank you. I don't know what you did to bring her back but thank you."

Kai swallowed hard against the constriction in his throat. "Don't thank me." He blinked hard. He remembered the black shadows of the Salvatore dungeon, his hand around Lily's white neck, squeezing bones and magic as he siphoned the necromancy that had kept her life long past her expiration date. He remembered the wild schemes he had plotted between the Grill and the Salvatore House, all the ways he was going to destroy her.

"I didn't do this," he said to Jo's puzzled face. "I went after… I didn't do this."

"Then who did?"

Kai shook his head. He had no idea. He wished he did, so he could thank them. He owed them his life.

He turned his back on his sister's shocked, almost-frightened face, and walked out of the hospital.

* * *

 _June 2014_

The stench of the dungeon masked the smell of fresh blood. And perhaps for the vampire, there were already so many dead things down here that two less heartbeats didn't register.

So they were almost at the cage when they realized what had happened.

Tim Ghiacci was sitting against the bars, one arm trapped between his body and the charmed metal. His front was soaked with red. His other arm flopped uselessly at his side, his fingers inches away from the ground where his heart lay on the floor in a red, veiny pool.

Danielle was lying on her back, staring up at the sliver of light that hit the wall across their cell. Where her throat had once been, nerve cords still wriggled like bloodied worms.

Kai grabbed the bars next to Tim's face with clenched fists, and let his fury ricochet through the cell, and down the dark corridor, rattling all the cages and causing a wave of alarm through the inmates.

"Praetor–" Elijah said, warningly.

"Who. did. this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Elijah whispered, staring at the corpses. "Your heretics tracked them here."

Kai didn't bother to ask what or from whom Elijah Mikaelson knew about heretics. Wasn't even concerned about that now. His gaze was fixed on the corpses in the cage. Fury and disappointment and, yes, remorse raged inside him.

He had hated them but he had grown up with them. They had been his siblings' friends.

He looked past them to the old man who still lay on the ground, with his hands folded. The difference now was that rather than a dusty, dirty floor, Quentin Ghiacci was lying in a pool of his blood.

* * *

When they trooped into the hotel, Matt suggested a pow-wow in his room to talk things over. Both girls cried it off.

"We're beat, Matt," Caroline said, doing the talking as they paused by his door. "Tomorrow morning, five am sharp."

He looked slightly put out but he nodded and said good night. The air between him and the girls was still strained.

Caroline looked over at her friend as they walked down to their rooms.

"You OK?" Caroline asked, quietly.

Bonnie nodded.

"Do you want to talk…"

Bonnie rubbed her eyes. "I just want to sleep, Care…"

Caroline pouted slightly. "OK." They had reached her door. "See you in the morning then…"

Even if Bonnie wanted to ignore the tinge of disappointment in her friend's voice, she couldn't miss the disappointment on her face. She trudged down the next few doors to her room, her shoulders slumped.

She _was_ tired. She was exhausted in every way possible – physically from jet lag, psychologically from the minefield of a dinner and Elijah's proposition, magically from the Rebekah incident and emotionally from… too many to even list.

And mentally, her head was buzzing. There were fragments swirling in there, supposedly disparate pieces of knowledge that now seemed to be fitting like parts of a jigsaw, if only she had the clarity of mind to put them all together.

What she needed was to have a hot shower, throw herself on her 1000-count Egyptian cotton bedsheet and sleep for the recommended 8 hours. When she woke, she'd have a big breakfast, New Orleans style, and most importantly, a clear head to just _think_ and decide what to do about the ultimatums looming ahead.

What she didn't need, barely two seconds before she had taken off her shoes, was to hear a knock on her door, and open it to find Rebekah Mikaelson in her doorway. The Original was still wearing her evening dress, but it was ripped and blood-stained. Behind her, the passageway was empty.

Magic reflexively wrapped around Bonnie, ready to unleash itself.

Rebekah held up her hands at once. "I come in peace. Bearing gifts."

Bonnie made to slam the door, but Rebekah grabbed the handle, holding it open with vampiric strength.

"Aren't you going to listen to what I have to say?"

"What could you possibly have to say that would interest me?"

Hurt flashed across the immortal's face. "I get it. You're mad at me because of the thing you have for Kai Parker." She ignored Bonnie's outraged gasp. "If you could just take your brain out of your vagina long enough to hear me out, you'll soon realize that I am making you an offer you can't turn down."

"Oh really?" Bonnie retorted, ignoring the derisive comment. She let go of the door, and put her hands on her hip. "Amuse me, then. You have exactly one minute to talk otherwise I will finish the job I started during dinner and bury you for good."

"You're not at least going to invite me in?"

Bonnie scoffed.

Rebekah pursed her lips, looking like if she had changed her mind about whatever brought her here. Then she sneered. "Fine. It's easy enough to figure out that you're here in New Orleans to ask my brother's help to fight your heretics. Knowing Elijah, he's drawn up a contract asking for the still-beating heart of your firstborn and made you sign the deal in the ink of your own blood." She looked at Bonnie expectantly.

When Bonnie didn't say anything, she fake-gasped. "Oh no, it's even worse, isn't it? Well, allow me to counter his offer. Rather than sell your soul to my devious brother or wait the interminable number of days for when he's penciled you into his archaic organizer, how about I follow you to Mystic Falls this very night and kill your heretics for you?"

Bonnie's head spun.

She told herself not to give anything away – no sign of shock, or elation or even suspicion.

But if Rebekah's smirk was any indication, the vampire had already sensed the impact of her words on Bonnie.

"So," Bonnie said finally, forcing her voice to stay neutral, "what's the catch?"

"Just how long you have to decide. I will kill your heretics, free of charge, no strings attached. But I need your answer in the next ten minutes–"

" _What?_ "

"–or I leave and take my offer with me. So what will it be, Bonnie Bennett?" Rebekah leaned forward, her mouth curling into a smirk. "Tick-tock."

* * *

 _July 2013_

 _Whitmore College_

The clock tower that had stopped ticking.

Kai noticed as he waited at the foot of the steps leading out of the hall where, per the schedule that his new brother-in-law had slipped him, Bonnie had her Bioarcheology class. Brother-in-law. Kai tried the phrase again in his head and chuckled internally. That would take some getting used to. As well as being treated semi-decently by the guy. More than semi-decently, to be honest. The man had practically been in tears when they 'accidentally' bumped into each other after the not-wedding. There was even a split-second of sheer panic when Kai thought he was going to get a hug. But thankfully, the man had pulled himself together and even managed to look slightly suspicious when Kai asked him for a little information.

He had still given him what he wanted though – Bonnie's schedule. Interesting how far a little gratitude could go. Almost as effective as cutting a deal, definitely more effective than threats of violence. And it had the additional benefit of not needing to worry that he'd get screwed over later.

So there was _some_ truth to the saying about flies and honey.

The campus was relatively quiet. From what Alaric had told him, most of the Spring exams were over. The only classes that were running now were the few that would be allowed to extend into summer. Apparently, there were some major construction projects planned for the summer. There were already signs of it – the decommissioned clock, scaffolds and barrier tapes dotting the landscape. He worried how that would affect Bonnie's plans to catch up with her coursework over the break. He told himself that he had a right to worry, to wonder about these things in her life. They were – they had _something_. Girlfriend and boyfriend sounded both too forward and at the same time too juvenile to describe their connection. But there _was_ a connection. An undeniable, inexplicable connection that had overcome the most harrowing of starts. This… misunderstanding was just a roadblock that they'd get over.

It couldn't be over when it had barely even started.

The two hours he sat on those steps waiting for Bonnie felt interminable.

The doors to the hall flung open and students poured out. He rushed to his feet, and the full brunt of apprehension that he had holding at bay rushed back into him. As he moved forward, his eyes scanned the crowd for someone petite, short-haired and drop dead gorgeous. He was cloaked, but no one bumped into him; the magic of the spell, and some inner mundane instinct made them move around and not into him.

Finally, he caught sight of her at the top of the steps. She was dressed in her usual shorts and loose blouse, her hair covering her neck.

A breath he didn't realize he was holding escaped.

It had been eight days, nine hours and fifty-four minutes since the last time he saw her.

She wasn't moving with the crowd, but standing still, in conversation with an elderly man who looked like a Professor. Coming nearer, Kai realized it was less a conversation and more Bonnie listening, her shoulders tense and her head bowed while the man lectured her about her missing coursework, and her failing grade.

After a while, he finished with a pat on her shoulder, and went back into the hall. Bonnie heaved a sigh and looked straight at where Kai stood.

He uncloaked himself.

She didn't even blink. "What do you want?"

He rubbed his hands on his pants, his nervousness returning. "If the mountain won't come, and all that…" He tried to laugh, then trailed off when her stony face didn't flicker.

"I'm busy, Kai," she said at last, and moved past him, careful not to touch him. She started walking briskly down the steps. The end-of-class mob had cleared; now, only a few people milled around the sidewalk.

He followed her. "Problem with school?" he asked, trying for casual. "I guess you couldn't play the 'I was supernaturally incarcerated for most of the semester' card to get extra credit, right? Come to think of it, playing any kind of 'I was incarcerated' card is a bad idea. Won't want that on your university record, right?"

She said nothing, as she all but ran down the steps.

"Or you could always ask your vampire friends to compel your Professors. Oh wait, you'd see that as taking the easy way out, right?" He tried for a laugh that came out strained. "Boy, if I had your magic when I was in college, my memories of that place would be completely different. Didn't anyone ever tell you to use what you have to get what you want?"

"You would know all about that, won't you?" she muttered.

He probably wasn't supposed to hear that but he did. His heart unclenched a little. "She speaks," he said softly.

Her shoulders tensed. She had clearly realized her mistake, probably furious with herself for rising to the bait. They were at the sidewalk now. The parking lot was a good distance and her legs were too short to outpace him. It didn't stop her from practically jogging ahead of him while he merely strode along. It would have been amusing if not for the panic clutching his chest.

"We need to talk," he said, dropping the attempt at casual banter that was clearly not working.

"I don't think so, Kai."

"No, we really do. Because if you think I'm going to let you go around jumping into conclusions about me so that you can justify knifing me in the back again-"

Bonnie coughed – or choked on her laugh, he couldn't say. "It's not rocket science, Kai. Two plus two equals your fault. I figured it out."

"Really?" he said, exasperated, to her back. "Care to enlighten me?"

Her answer was to walk faster.

"Remember what happened the last time you refused to hear me out?" he shouted.

She stopped.

"If you're worried about me coming after you, then don't. Because I. don't. want. to. ever. see. you. again."

Each word was like a gunshot to his heart.

"So take your creepy coven and your creepy self and get the fuck away from me."

No, this was not happening. He was not going to lose his chance with her. He was not.

"Bonnie," he said; and when she didn't answer, he grabbed her elbow, and spun her around.

The charge wrecked him, working its way from his wrist to his shoulder. He could tell from the sharp gasp and her eyes, wide and wild, staring into his own that she felt it, the exact same thing.

"Bonnie," he pleaded weakly.

"Don't you ever touch me again," she hissed. She yanked her arm away and turned back to walking away from him.

He swallowed hard, once, twice, then followed her.

"Leave me alone, Kai!"

"Not until you give me a chance to explain.

"I said it already – you don't need to."

"Then tell me what the heck you think I did!"

She stopped so suddenly that he almost ran into her.

When she rounded on him, her eyes were so furious that he took a step back in alarm.

"You. went. back. and. brought. them. here."

When he said nothing, she took a step forward, forcing him to move back. "Didn't you?"

He swallowed again. "You overheard me and my father talking. How much did you hear? I used a muffling spell. Did you counter it? You shouldn't have been able to…"

She raised her hand, one tired gesture and his nervous prattle tapered off.

"He said something finding 'evidence' in the apartment across yours. He was furious because he had vouched for you. You took him there, and I didn't hear anything else. But that was enough. When we… _I_ was in your apartment the day of Jo's wedding, I thought there was somebody in the flat across. The neighbors, I guessed, but it was something else, wasn't it?"

He couldn't speak.

"I got my friend at the Sheriff's office to do some digging, and he confirmed what I already figured. The apartment was not rented. I put the rest of it together. How the heretics got out of 1903. You had brought them out and you were keeping them prisoners in there. I don't know what you planned to do with them, Kai. Kill them for real since they couldn't die in the 1903 Prison World. Torture them. Play diabolical games with them in your own turf. But whatever you planned, you lost control of them. They escaped and went after everyone in your coven." Her eyes swept over him, her face cold with scorn.

"They escaped?" He repeated, weakly. "They didn't _escape_ , Bonnie. You still haven't figured it out, have you?"

"Figured out what?"

 _Don't say it_ , the still sane part of his brain whispered. _Don't_.

He closed his eyes, forced himself to breathe in deeply. _Walk away, Kai. Don't do this. You can still fix this but only if you walk away_ now.

"Forget it," he said quietly and turned away.

Her hand on his wrist tugged him back so fiercely, he nearly stumbled. She was always stronger – physically and mentally – than she looked.

"Figured out what, Kai?" she asked, threatening.

He glanced at their connection. Even now, with all this anger between them, he felt that current running between them. "What happened to the no touching rule?" he snarked.

Her eyes narrowed into slits, and her grip tightened. "Answer the fucking question. I want to hear the bullshit you think you can spin out of this."

Fuck his good intentions.

"OK, Bonnie," he said, his voice smooth as poison as he yanked his hand away. "You asked for it."

She stood with her hands on her hips, chin lifted and defiant. But something like fear seemed to flicker across her face.

Too late.

"You were in my apartment before the wedding, _searching_ for an Ascendant that no longer existed because of your insane idea that I was going to lock you up in the Prison World–"

" _Insane?_ "

"–and so what did little Busy Bonnie do? What she does best. She _meddled_. She snooped through my things until she found the focusing point of my barrier axis."

She furrowed her brow, confused and he smiled insincerely. "The strand of my hair you found in my bedroom?"

Her eyes widened, as panicked realisation dawned. "I thought you missed it…"

He went on as if she hadn't spoken. "I didn't _miss_ it, Bonnie. I was using it to anchor the barrier spell that kept the heretics under lock and key. You distilled it, conjured a tracking spell with it that led straight to the focusing point of its axis, the _only_ spot where the barrier could be shattered." He watched her face ashen, and told himself to stop. That it wasn't her fault, not really, and nothing good was going to come out of what he said next.

But he couldn't help it. Frustration at her complete obliviousness; and resentment of her sense of complete self-righteousness propelled him. "Even with that, it wasn't yet a disaster. I was dealing with siphoners so of course, I had wrapped everything they could lay their hands on under layers and layers of cloaking spells that they won't dare leech because of what would happen if they brought down that barrier the wrong way. But then – then – _then –_ _you_ being the Busy B that you are, you cast a Bennett-powered Revelation spell that – guess what? – stripped all those layers, leaving a big red X for the heretics to safely siphon the barrier and escape."

Her jaw dropped, horror filled her eyes. "What?" she gasped.

Kai said nothing, just glared down at her, angry at her, angry at himself, angry at the whole damned situation.

He had put the pieces together even before he hijacked Matt Donovan's memories. The coincidence of her in his apartment, _looking_ for the Ascendant coupled with the obvious explanation that the heretics freed themselves by siphoning off the focus of a barrier axis that they _shouldn't have been able to find_ had only led to one conclusion.

He hadn't done the _Memorian_ spell to confirm this. He had done the spell to make sure that no one else ever could.

She blinked hard, looked away, then looked back at him. "You're doing this? You're putting this on me?"

He ran a harried hand through his hair. "I'm just stating the facts," he said quietly.

"The facts?" Harsh, disbelieving laughter tore out of her. It was thick, as if filled with tears.

His heart throbbed, and he reached for her. "Bonnie…"

She recoiled. His hands fell helplessly to his sides.

"Bonnie…"

"So this is my fault?"

"I'm only saying that if you hadn't been so paranoid–"

" _Paranoid_?" She shouted, making him jump. "After you stabbed me in 1994 and left me to die–"

"I already told you that I didn't-"

"Yes, of course. How could I forget? You know how to kill people and that was not it. You just wanted the satisfaction of abandoning me and driving me to the depths of desolation and despair, not something 'easy' and 'juvenile' like plain old murder. I mean, based on that alone, why ever would I think you won't still be thinking of carrying out some long-term nefarious plot to get back at me?" She finished, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Because I already told you we. were. even!" He growled.

Bonnie growled right back, her eyes bright and shining. "Forgive me, Kai, for not believing your sense of justice was greater than your thirst for vengeance! Clearly, I wasn't _completely_ wrong. You might not have wanted to get back at _me_ , but you sure wanted to get back at the heretics, didn't you? 'Even with all that perspective, I still wanted to get even'?" He recognised his own words from the hotel room and shame filled him. "'Crush their skulls… suck out their souls…' How's that working out for you, anyway?"

The words he wanted to utter were stuck in his throat.

But she wasn't done. "You practically confessed it. I just didn't realise how far… Do you even care about the people that died in your little revenge scheme? Or are you just happy you got even in the end? Congratulations, then, Kai."

The pent-up guilt exploded into rage.

" _I had everything under control_. If you hadn't broken into my apartment, put your nose where it didn't belong, casting revelation spells, _messing around with my magic_ , maybe none of this would have happened!"

" _Stop saying that!_ " She screamed. "Stop trying to–" She squeezed her eyes tight, her jaw working furiously as her hands opened and closed at her sides while he watched helplessly. He wanted badly to hold her and he wanted badly to shake her.

Then she opened her eyes and stared at him with pure icy hatred. "And you wonder why I can't fully trust you? Stop fearing you? You haven't changed. Not really. You're still the same vindictive, vengeful, cold-blooded snake you've always been."

"So we're a perfect pair, aren't we?" he asked hoarsely. "Because you're still the same judgmental, self-righteous hypocrite you've always been."

"How dare you?" Her hand flew out, and the blow cracked against his jaw, making him see stars. He laughed, which made her eyes flash. He was ready for the second slap and grabbed her hand an inch from his face, using it to yank her up against him.

"Let me go…"

"Lie to my face, Bonnie. Tell me you've never known what it is to want to get even so badly, you don't care about the consequences? You don't care who it hurts?"

"I have never-"

He cut her off with a sneer. "Did you think about the consequences of letting a _ripper_ out when you and Damon were scheming to trap me in 1903? Or did you just not care?"

"I didn't know Lily was a ripper!"

"You didn't know because you didn't _want_ to know!"

"But _you_ did!" She all but spat at him. "Why did you let her out?"

He glared at her, the maelstrom of emotion he felt for this woman almost exploding in his brain. "You. fucking. know. why."

She swallowed hard, and looked away.

When she spoke again, her voice was defeated.

"I can't do this. We can't do this."

His heart kicked up a riot. _No. Please… no…_

"Can't you see? We're not… This can never…" She swallowed again, determinedly not looking at him. "Let me go, Kai."

He didn't want to. Even as furious and frustrated as he was now, the idea of letting Bonnie go was enough to send him over the edge. If he let her go now, he'd lose her. They'd never be able to come out from this.

"No, Bonnie…" _Please…_

Her eyes were screwed shut, her mouth twisted with pain and the silent _motus_ cut him unawares. The shove carried him across the side-walk, landing so hard against a container of construction materials that he blacked out for a few seconds.

By the time he got to his feet, and pushed through the crowd that had formed around him, she was gone.

* * *

1 Ascension/Coronation/Swearing-In/Binding of the new Gemini Leader

* * *

 **A/N** : Please give KUDOS to my wonderful beta **keenan24** who edited all 30K words of this chapter and gave me some amazing advice that really helped me shape this chapter. You're the best!

This chapter is dedicated to all my darling reviewers! Thank you so much. I was so overwhelmed at all the feedback I got from the last chapter! It really kept me going even when I felt so intimidated to write this chapter. I really hope it lived up to expectation because I am extremely nervous about this chapter! All the characters in play and BK's first meet (real time) after such a long gap. Also, I don't know how many of you guessed the big reveal of how the heretics escaped and Kai's (and Bonnie's) involvement in it... but it was in the DNA of this story from the start and it's such a relief to finally "cross off" that mystery. So please, please, please let me know what you think! If you're having problems posting a review while signed in, you can post an anonymous review but just put your name in the name field so I'll know who it's from.


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